


The Story of Us

by ElenaSalvatore



Category: The Vampire Diaries & Related Fandoms, The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Dead Stefan Salvatore, F/M, Human Damon Salvatore, Human Elena Gilbert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:48:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 50,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25905373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElenaSalvatore/pseuds/ElenaSalvatore
Summary: The story of Damon and Elena's HUMAN life, picking up exactly where Elena woke up in 8x16! I basically wanted to write about Damon and Elena's long and happy life after the show ended. I haven't seen many fics like this, so here is mine and what I hope would've happened if the show would've continued. Mentions of the other characters too. Hope you enjoy!
Relationships: Elena Gilbert/Damon Salvatore
Comments: 32
Kudos: 42





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> After rewatching the show for the millionth time during quarantine, here we are. I wanted to write a story all about what I think Damon and Elena's human life was like! I haven't written fanfiction in a while so bare with me. Leave a comment and a kudos if you enjoy! :)

“Dear Diary,

Today will be different. Today I will smile. It will be genuine.. because today is the day that I will get to live again.”

Her eyes slowly fluttered open, looking around the room... Trying to figure out exactly where she was and what was happening.. And then it suddenly dawned on her, she was in Damon’s bedroom. There were candles everywhere and pages torn from grimoires. The last thing she remembers is dancing with Damon on the road they had first met on.. and then it all went blank. Kai had put a spell on her, linking her life to Bonnie’s.

Looking around in confusion, she met a pair of familiar green eyes, and one of the most sincerest smiles she’d come to know in her life, the eyes and smile she was never supposed to see again, and her heart swelled.

“There she is.” Bonnie smiled.

“Am I?” She asked, touching her face, to see if this was real.

“I did it,” Bonnie giggled, “I broke the spell.”

“How?” Elena asked, realizing that she was actually awake.

“It took some time, but I think I finally figured this witch thing out.”

They both laughed and Elena hugged her. She never thought she would ever get the chance to see Bonnie again. She was awake, and she had been given a second chance at pure happiness. She had a million questions and didn’t know a thing.. like how long she had been asleep, obviously it couldn’t have been too long because Bonnie still looked the same, but then again she was a powerful witch, she could slow her aging down.. and then it hit her. Stefan, Stefan was dead. And then she thought of Damon.

When Bonnie had pulled away it was all over her face.. the pain. The tears in her eyes. When she had seen Stefan in her dream world it had been completely true, he was gone. And the only thing she could think about now was being there for Damon.

“Where is he?”

“He’s with Caroline. Saying goodbye.”

“I have to get to him, Bon.”

“Of course, I know. Come on, I’ll drive you.”

Rushing down the stairs and out the front door of the Salvatore house, they both climbed in Bonnie’s car and made the drive to the family crypt.

“How — how did you know about Stefan?”

“I saw him.. as he was passing. He told me that Damon was ready to sacrifice himself for everyone.. and that he had become a human again.. that Damon had compelled him into leaving.. but he was on vervain. He.. he gave Damon the cure..” Elena said, trying to remember and take everything in that he had said to her in such a short time.

“You’ve missed a lot.” Bonnie smiled.

“How long have I been asleep?”

“A little over five years, give or take.”

"Wow." Elena replied.

The ride was short, and for Elena, it was surreal.. for her it felt like no time had passed, but in reality, everything had changed, and she had missed so much. She didn't even know the half of it.

When they walked up to the crypt, no one was around.. She and Bonnie decided to quietly wait outside and give them a moment to say goodbye.. and then before she knew it Caroline was opening the doors, and then she was in just as much shock.. Elena smiled at her, and Caroline put her hands over her mouth in disbelief that she was seeing her friend again so soon. But, as Caroline was coming over to her, she met the eyes she had been searching for since she first woke up.

He smiled at her, and as his eyes began filling with tears. She ran to him and pressed her lips to his. He hugged her so tightly that she could hardly breathe, and kissed her even harder, and then held her again. He was so afraid to let go, in fear that this couldn’t be real.. but it was.

They stood there for a few moments, so caught up in each other that they didn’t even realize Bonnie and Caroline walking away to give them some privacy.

When he finally let her go, he brushed the hair from her eyes and ran his thumb across her cheek.

“I can’t believe you’re really here.. Bon Bon actually did it.” He said with tears in his eyes.

“I’m here, Damon..” She smiled back, playing with the little hairs on the back of his neck. “I’m back and I’m not going anywhere.”

“You have no idea how much I’ve missed you.. how much I’ve needed you.. how dull life has been without you.. every moment of the last 5 years has been miserable without you.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be here.” She smiled, “but I’m here now.. I’m ready for you to tell me everything.”

Damon smiled, a very sad smile, “Stefan, he’s —“ he said shaking his head.

“I know..” She said quietly.

“Do you think he found peace?” He asked with tears still in his eyes.

“I know he did. Damon, I saw him, in my dream world. I got to say goodbye. He told me you wanted to sacrifice everything to save me.. to save Mystic Falls. He told me how you were ready to die.. and you compelled him to leave..”

“But he was on vervain.” Damon smiled.

“Yeah... Said he wouldn’t walk a day on this earth as a human without it.” She smiled. “He also told me he saw a side of you that he hadn’t seen in a while. The older brother he looked up to, and the son who enlisted in the civil war to please his father, the Damon he knew as a boy. He told me he wanted that Damon to live, for me to have the opportunity to get to know him. He said you were the better man, the right man.”

Damon smiled, his pain in the ass little brother who died just to give him the life he’d always wanted. Died for him, so that he could live a human life with Elena Gilbert.

“And then we hugged, and he walked out of the school door.. a big white light... and Lexi.” She said with a smile on her face. “He said he was feeling epic..” She giggled.

Damon laughed and hugged her again.. by this time everyone had shown back up.. Ric, Matt, Bonnie, and Caroline. They all said their goodbyes to Stefan. Matt and Ric had left him roses, Caroline left her snow globe that he had gotten her on their first Christmas, and Damon left his daylight ring.

They all left feeling a little bit lighter, still the same amount of sad, but they all knew that Stefan would want them to live their lives to the fullest, and not mope around for him because he was okay with the choice he had made.

Shortly after leaving, Bonnie had dropped Damon and Elena back at the Salvatore house. Everyone agreed that they could use some time alone, to catch up.

When they walked inside, the house was quiet. It felt empty, just the two of them being there.

“Want me to make us something to eat?” Damon smiled at her. “You must be starving, you know going 5 years without food and all.”

Elena chuckled, “I could definitely eat.”

“Come on, I’ll make us some pancakes.” He said, wiggling his eyebrows.

She followed him into the kitchen and he started getting all of the ingredients together, and then shortly after that began mixing the batter and scooping it onto the griddle.

“So, how is it for you? Being a human again?”

“Well, the three days that I’ve been human again have needed some… getting used to. I was a vampire longer than I was a human, and it was lifetimes ago. I don’t have super speed, or vamp hearing anymore, and it’s embarrassing how low my tolerance for alcohol is.”

“But you don’t regret your choice?”

He sat the spatula down beside the stove and walked over to her, placing his hands on both sides of her waist. “I will never regret my decision to have a life with you. I meant every word I said 5 years ago, and even though everything has changed, my love for you hasn’t.. and the way that I love you hasn’t. You’re the most important thing in my life, and how I went this long without you.. I don’t even know.”

“I love you, Damon... I’m so sorry you had to go through all of this alone.”

“I’m just glad you’re here with me now.” He smiled, kissing her forehead.

He finished up the pancakes and they sat in the kitchen and ate together. While they were eating, Damon started filling Elena in on all of the stuff that she had missed. He told her about Bonnie and Enzo.. about what happened with Enzo and Stefan, and why Stefan had taken the cure. He told her about Lilly and the heretics, and about Reyna and the Phoenix Stone.. about what it was like going into the Phoenix stone.. Accidentally killing everyone after he came back.. They ended up talking for hours. He even told her about killing Tyler while under the influence of Sybil, and fighting the devil himself, both Cade and Katherine.

“I missed so much.” Elena frowned. "And you went through so much.. It breaks my heart."

“It’s okay.. I have you now.” Damon smiled, “and YOU have a whole box of journals sitting in our bedroom that everyone wrote for you… including myself.”

“Damon Salvatore kept a journal?” She playfully raised her eyebrow.

“Only sometimes, when I really needed to vent, or to tell you how much I missed you.. or to give myself hope.. Hell sometimes, to punish myself.”

She smiled, and walked over to the other side of the table, kissed his forehead, and grabbed his hand. “Come on, let’s take a bath and you can tell me all about it.”

Damon Salvatore loved taking bubble baths. They were both relaxing and calming for him, so when she suggested they take one he was fully on board. Even if it was 1 in the morning, and his eyes were barely open.

In the bath, Damon stretched his legs out around Elena and propped her legs in his lap as they rest their heads at each end of the tub.

They were in comfortable silence for a while, listening to the sound of each other's breathing.. Of course, it wasn’t like it used to be, with the vamp hearing, but it was still comforting to hear the other person take in each breath and exhale.

“Hey..” She said softly, “did you.. you know-“

“See anyone?” Damon finished her sentence and she nodded. “No, I could never, but I did sleep with someone. One person and I’ve felt guilty about it since the moment it happened. Krystal.. with a K.” He sighed. “When I thought I burned your body in that coffin, I spiraled. Not like a killing spree, I did this fight club thing for a night so I could be in pain... I felt like I was getting what I deserved because I thought I lost you forever.. and she just happened to be there.”

“Damon, it's okay.” She smiled. “I told you to go and live your life, and it’s okay that you did… even if it was someone that sounds.. questionable.” She giggled.

Damon laughed, thinking back to Bonnie’s reaction, “Bonnie said the same thing, she said she sounded classy, but with a K.” He wiggled his eyebrows.

Elena giggled, “well I hope it wasn’t here at least”

“Nah, took it to the Lockwood Mansion” He smirked.

She wasn’t upset with him, but it still stung a little. She would never admit it though. She told him to go live his life and that’s what he did.. However, she was a little jealous that she missed 5 years.. even if those 5 years didn’t count.

“That was right before I decided to desiccate,” Damon said, pulling her from her thoughts. “For about 2 and 1/2 years.. until Reyna Cruz came back.. that’s when Stef woke me.”

“Damon! I told you not to do that!” She sighed.

“I know, but you don’t know what it’s like to live without you, Elena.”

She looked into his eyes and could see the sadness, and she wanted nothing more than to take it away. She leaned up from her side of the tub and leaned over to him. She started by kissing his lips, and then his jaw, and then his neck.

She grabbed the sponge from behind her and started to wash his body for him, but he stopped her. “You don’t have to do that.”

“I know.” She smiled, “but it’s my turn to take care of you.”

She smiled and kissed him again, continuing to wash every inch of his body for him, and wasn’t taking no for an answer.

After she was finished, she got herself out of the tub and then him. They wrapped up in the fluffy white towels she had come to love so much over the years and they brushed their teeth. They ended up crawling into bed a few short minutes after that. She could see how tired he was, and after the day he’s had she doesn’t know how he hasn’t fallen over yet.

“Are you sleepy?” She asked him.

“Only if you are.” He smiled, laying against her chest as she rolled his hair into curls with her finger.

Elena smiled, “would you believe me if I said I could totally use a nap.”

Damon laughed, a hearty laugh, and before he could even reply, exhaustion set in and he was asleep within seconds.

She ended up not sleeping for the majority of that night, she only laid there, looking at him, playing with his hair, and kissing his head. How could she seemed to have missed him so much when it was only yesterday for her? It’s almost like her body knew.. could sense the separation because she never wanted to let him go again, she wanted to hold him and keep him safe, and never let him leave the house.

——

When he first woke up the next morning, he had thought it was all a dream, but when looked over to his right, there she was. Sleeping next to him. He rolled over on his side and scooted closer to the center of the bed where she was. He rubbed her cheek, brushing the hair away from her eyes and mouth, and kissed her tenderly on the lips.

She stirred in her sleep and then smiled.

“Haven’t you slept enough?” He asked her, smiling.

“It’s about time you woke up,” she said groggily, rolling to her side so that she could face him better, “I’ve been waiting all night.”

He smiled and leaned down to kiss her again, this time deepening the kiss. The feel of her lips, the taste... it overwhelmed him and he needed more. He needed to show her how much he missed her. Rolling her over onto her back, he smoothly landed on top of her. He started peppering kisses on her lips, quickly moved to her ears, and then her neck.

“Too many clothes.” He whispered, pulling his black t-shirt over her head and discarding it to the floor.

His mouth found her round breasts shortly after that and she moaned. He took a nipple into his mouth, gently nipping it with his teeth.

“Damon.” She moaned again, running her fingers through his thick dark hair.

“God I've missed that.” He smirked, looking down at her. “Those beautiful lips moaning my name.”

She smiled at him, he was such romantic.

“You know what I would rather hear?” She asked him, quickly grabbing his wrists and expertly flipping him over so that he was on his back and she was on top.

Damon smiled, “tell me.”

“You.” She smiled, leaning down to his ear. “Screaming my name.” She ground her hips over his and he moaned..a throaty, deep moan that went straight to her core.

She wanted to make this about him though, she wanted to spoil him for a change and help him through all of the grief she knew he was going through, and well, to make up for so much lost time.

“You’re so damn sexy.” He said breathlessly.

She smiled and kissed him again. She kissed his lips, and then quickly moved to his jaw, and then down his neck and on to his chest. She licked over to each nipple and continued to kiss down his belly.

“Now who’s wearing too many clothes.” She smiled, grabbing the waistband of his boxers and tugging them down his legs.

He was hard, and she smiled, taking him into her hand.

“Lena.” He moaned again.

“Shhh, just lay back and let me take care of you.”

She stroked him gently, using his precum to circle her thumb around the head of his cock. She did this for a few minutes, building up anticipation and then—

“Ohhhhh, Elena.”

She took him into her mouth, and he could have came right then and there. She slowly started bobbing her head up and then down to the base, holding her mouth there for a few seconds and then repeating her steps over and over again.

He laid back and watched her in admiration, gently gathering up her hair and keeping it out of her face. He knew it wouldn’t take long and he was right, he could feel himself edging closer and closer.

“Baby, I’m gonna-“

Was all he said before she went all the way down to the base of his cock and held her mouth there, and he came. He came hard, his body convulsed and he saw stars.. When he was finished he looked up to see her smiling at him, licking her lips and crawling back up towards him.

“Kiss me.” He whispered, taking her head into his hands. He could taste himself all over her lips and her tongue and somehow it was the hottest thing in the world for him.. to have Elena Gilbert taste like him.

“I love you so much.” He panted. “That was incredible.”

“I love you, Damon Salvatore.”

“I didn’t mean to cut the party short.” He smiled, “but it’s been a while.”

“It’s okay, I’m sure you’ll make it up to me.” She smirked.

He smiled mischievously and put his hands on her thighs, pulling them up towards him. “Come here.”

She was a little confused at first, but when she went to adjust herself on top of him, he grabbed her bum and pulled her up to where she was just hovering over his face. She blushed and he smiled. “Take a seat.”

The moment she lowered herself down onto him, Damon swiped his tongue across her mound. She moaned, loudly.

“Not what I had in mind about the repaying me, but god this is good too.” She said breathlessly, running her fingers through his hair as he continued his slow, torturous licks and kisses.

She remembered the first time Damon had let her ride his face. Insisted actually. It was their first night together, before they knew about the sire bond, the night of the Miss Mystic Falls pageant. She still blushed thinking back on that, she was much more innocent back then, and when he had propped her on top of him she had never felt more turned on or sexy in her life.

Sex with Stefan was great, but sex with Damon was something she almost couldn’t wrap her head around. He made her a better lover, showed her what she truly liked. Elena Gilbert wasn’t as vanilla as she made herself out to be, and Damon made sure to make her feel comfortable enough to express herself in the bedroom. To be verbal, to look into his eyes when she was coming, and that it was okay to try new things.

The pleasure he was giving her was starting to overwhelm her, she could feel herself edging closer and her thighs started to shake.

“Damon, no... Not like this.” She said breathlessly. “I want you inside of me.”

Damon smiled up at her, and with one last kiss to her clit, he stopped. He quickly rolled them over found his spot between her legs, easily guiding himself into her warm center. They both moaned, and he started to move.

“Look at me, Lena.” He whispered.

She opened her eyes and looked up and smiled at him, meeting his every thrust. She dug her nails into his back and wrapped her legs around his waist. It didn’t take long after for her back to arch and she was coming, and that’s all it took for him. They both rode out their orgasms, holding each other tightly and telling one another how much they loved them.

When everything went calm again, he pulled out of her and rolled over onto his back. He felt.. emotional. He was raw with emotion actually. The love of his life was back, and the feelings of love and happiness overwhelmed him.

She noticed the tear in his eye and stroked his face. “Hey, you okay?”

He rolled over to the side to look at her. “I’m better than okay. I’m overjoyed. I have a million emotions right now. Sad, for my brother, but somehow the feelings I feel for you triumph all of the sad ones. I just have so many feelings, I don’t know what to do with them.”

She kissed his forehead, “I love you, Damon. We’ll get through this. I know you’re sad about Stefan, but he would want you to be happy.. and not feel guilty for being happy. When my parents died, and he came into my life, he said something to me… and it’s really stuck with me. He told me that I wouldn’t be sad forever.” She whispered to him. “Neither will you, we’re gonna live an amazing life, and we’re gonna honor him, and we’re gonna keep his memory alive.”

Tears continued to flow down his cheeks and she kissed them every one away. For a while, she doesn’t know how long, she just held him and he was quiet. She’d never seen Damon so, fragile.

“I love you, Elena.” He finally said, “ I don’t know what I would do if you weren’t here with me. I would go crazy.”

She smiled, “well you’re stuck with me for life now.”

“I wouldn’t wanna get old and senile with anyone else.” He chuckled. “Speaking of being human-“ he paused, “we totally didn’t use a condom.” He said slowly.

Elena's mouth fell open and her eyes got big. “Oh... It completely slipped my mind.”

Damon smirked, “We’re gonna make cute babies though.”

She laughed and swatted his chest, “Damon, totally not funny. We are not ready for children right now.”

“I’m ready for whatever life has to throw at us.” He smiled and kissed her. “Speaking of, we need to talk.” He said, rolling over to his nightstand, and pulling a piece of paper back out.

“A little while ago, you were very specific about what you wanted our life to be. A little loft in Tribeca and I owned a bar.. and you were becoming a doctor. When you told me that, I wanted to give it to you.” He explained, handing her the piece of paper. “Now, it’s not Tribeca. New York is a bit crowded for me, but I did like Portland. It’s a loft above a bar that we own. And whenever we are ready, it’s there waiting for us.”

Tears welled in her eyes, he had taken in every word she said and made it a complete reality. She looked at the piece of paper. The place he had chosen was a beautiful 3 bedroom 3 bathroom loft and an exquisite bar.

“When did you.. Have the time to do this, Damon?” She smiled.

“Well, actually I bought it a few days after we had the conversation about the life we wanted.”

“Damon,” she said in awe. “It’s beautiful, I love it, and I love you.”

He would never get tired of hearing her say that.. “I love you too.” He replied, “it's also very close to a medical school, and a very good one at that.. I made sure.”

“You’ve thought of everything.” She smiled, parting his legs so she could sit in between them. He placed a soft kiss on her temple and wrapped her in his arms. “But wait. What about here? This place is home too, Damon.”

“Well, that’s actually another thing I wanted to talk to you about.” She shifted her body so she could look at him. “I think Stefan would want this place to be something great if we’re not going to be here. I think he would be happy if Caroline and Ric opened back up the boarding house… But for special kids, like, witches and kids with supernatural abilities. Caroline and Ric have been having a time out of Josie and Lizzie trying to control their magic in a safe environment and I think this place could be perfect for just that.”

Elena smiled, warmly. “I think he would absolutely love that.”

“But listen, no rush. Whenever we're ready to go. I know you probably need some time for adjusting and seeing people.”

“As long as I’m with you, it doesn’t matter where we are.” She smiled.

“Back at you.” He kissed her.

The moment was quickly ruined by a loud growl, and Elena and Damon both laughed.

She rolled over and grabbed her phone, 2:00 PM.

“No wonder your stomach is growling its 2 o’clock.” She laughed, realizing how late they’d slept in, minus the last hour they spent rolling around in the bed.

She also noticed all the calls and text she had missed due to her phone being on do not disturb. Caroline: 15 texts, Jeremy: 3 missed calls, Bonnie: 1 text message.

“I didn’t realize it was that late..” He said, making his way out of bed. “Come on, let’s get something to eat and let you reply to everyone before they send a swat team over here on us.”

They both laughed and she made her way to his side of the bed, dangling her legs over it.

“They can wait until after we have breakfast.” She said, pulling him down to meet her mouth.

She kissed him softly, savoring the moment. “Sorry, I just can’t keep my hands off you.”

“Hey, no complaints here. I’ve waited so long to have you back.”

“Well, thank you for an amazing day and a half back. I can’t wait to spend the rest of our lives together.”

“Me too,” he replied. Kissing her one more time before they both got up and found their clothes.

After semi dressing, they made their way hand in hand down to the kitchen and had breakfast. This time Elena cooked. It was scrambled eggs... One of the few things she actually knew how to make. They sat there and ate their eggs and talked more.

They would eventually come out and see the rest of the world, but right now they just needed each other, they had tomorrow to see other people.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed the first chapter, the second one will be up soon!! Leave a comment and give me feedback! :)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I meant to post yesterday, but I ended up spilling tea all over my keyboard and it had to dry out, and my computer has been funky since! Anyways, I hope you enjoy! :)

Since Elena had been back, life was wonderful, especially for Damon. They spent every waking moment together. Doing anything really: Talking, watching movies, cooking together, going for walks, and his personal favorite, making love. She did make time for Jeremy and her best friends though, but mainly she spent her time with Damon and everyone understood why.

Damon knew how to be a human, but it took some time for him to adjust. He was much slower, and a lot weaker, but being a human was more wonderful than what he ever remembered. He felt more alive, like time was this precious gift and he needed to use it wisely. Even after weeks though, he still missed his brother, and some days were harder than the others. He wished Stefan could’ve been here, to enjoy being human with him, even though he knows it could never happen. He just hoped that he would see him again someday. Elena telling him that Stefan found peace was a relief though, and it gave him peace too.

In the following weeks, Damon and Elena had many conversations about the future. They didn’t want to wait much longer to begin their lives. As nice as it was to stay in Mystic Falls, this wasn’t the place for them anymore. Not right now anyway. Way too many people knew they were here and what they used to be and if their secret ever got out, it would be very bad.

They decided in August that they would pack up and leave Mystic Falls in September. That would give them a little over a full month there, to spend time with their family and friends, and pack everything up.

“So we’re telling them tonight?” Damon asked, shaving his face while Elena laid in the bathtub behind him.

She took in a deep breath and exhaled. “Tonight.”

“They’re gonna be happy for us, Elena.” He told her, “They understand that we want to start a life together, and they also understand why it can't be here.”

“I know, I just feel like I’ve missed a big part of their lives, and I don’t want them to think I’m just running off, ya know?”

“You know they would never think that.” He walked over and sat on the side of the tub. “But if you think you’d like to wait a little longer, we can.”

She smiled, “that’s okay. As much as I wanna be here with them, I wanna start our life too.”

He smiled down at her and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. “You’re out of wine, would you like some more?”

“I mean, I’m not gonna refuse another glass.” She giggled.

Damon laughed and grabbed her wine glass. While he was off doing that, she picked back up the journal she was reading. In the last few weeks, she had almost made her way through them all. Right now she was on Caroline’s. Caroline’s journals were very informative. She talked about her relationship with Stefan, Stefan’s relationship with his ex heretic, her pregnancy, and then updates on her girls’ life. She talked about how much she missed Liz, and how she even helped Damon hold on when Sybil had his mind controlled.

All in all, the journals that her friends kept for her were very helpful. She got to read first hand on what she missed, and it was somewhat like she knew everything that had happened. Not everything, but she had a pretty clear picture.

When Damon returned with her glass of wine she was on the last few pages. She smiled and kissed him, and then he returned to getting ready, and she finished up her reading.

—

Around 5:00 they had both finished getting ready and wanted to start dinner. They told everyone to be at the house by 6. Damon and Elena wanted to have a dinner party, to tell everyone when they were leaving. They figured it would be easier to tell them all at once.

They decided they would make pasta, it was something everyone liked, and it was very quick and easy to make. While Damon made his pasta sauce and noodles, Elena was on knife duty, cutting up garlic and herbs and in charge of the garlic bread.

They’d come to love cooking together, and trying new things when it was just the two of them. They would turn nice music on and figure it out together. Damon had always been an amazing cook, but Elena was definitely more of a diamond in the rough, something Damon really adored about her.

“Taste..” Damon told her, blowing on the wooden spoon and holding it up to her mouth.

She took a bite of Damon’s pasta sauce and her eyes lit up. “That tastes so much better than I remember it.” She moaned.

He smiled, and continued to stir, “I tweaked it a little here and there.”

Not long after that, Bonnie showed up, spooking them both.

“I brought wine!” She yelled excitedly, showing the bottle to them.

Damon and Elena looked at each other, and then her and broke into laughter.

“BonBon, you scared the hell out of me.” Damon laughed.

“Ooh, Damon Salvatore? Scared??” She teased.

Elena laughed and walked over to Bonnie, she gave her a quick hug and then put the bottle of wine on the counter for her.

“Is there anything I can help with?” She asked, walking over beside them.

“No, everything is good. Just a few more minutes and it’ll all be ready.” Damon told her.

About the time Damon got the pasta put together and Elena took the bread from the oven, everyone started pouring in. Caroline and Ric came with the girls and Matt and Jeremy showed up together.

Everyone was in good spirits, this had been the first time they’d all been together, for something happy, in such a long time. Damon set up the table with all of the food, and Elena placed everyone, serving them wine and water. Elena, Damon, and Bonnie sat on one side of the table, while Caroline, Ric, and Matt sat at the other, leaving Jeremy at the end between Elena and Ric. Elena also set up a little table for the twins.

Everyone gathered around the table and started to eat. It was the most normal dinner they’ve all probably had together. Caroline and Ric told stories about how rambunctious the girls were, and Jeremy told stories about how he was hunting the supernatural... Elena still wasn’t totally cool with it, but she could see it was something that made him happy.

When everyone was almost done eating, Elena grabbed Damon’s thigh under the table and gave him the look.

“So, there’s something we need to tell you guys.” Elena started.

“Were moving to Portland in September.” Damon finished.

Everyone took a moment and looked at them.

“I’m gonna start Medical School in the fall, thanks to Caroline compelling Whitmore to give me my undergraduate, and Damon’s going to open his bar,” Elena told them.

She had already talked to Caroline about medical school a little bit, and she was more than happy to compel her the undergraduate she was already working on. Elena had already been ahead of her class, so with a little extra work, she would be totally fine and where she should be.

“We’re so happy for you guys,” Bonnie said, raising her glass for a toast.

“Ugh, this sucks that you’re leaving so soon, but we understand,” Caroline said.

They all raised their glasses and drank on it.

“You’re gonna make an awesome doctor, Elena. Mom and Dad would be so proud of you.” Jeremy smiled.

“Thanks, Jer, that means a lot.” Elena smiled.

“I um, also have an announcement.” Bonnie smiled. “I’m kind of going to go to Paris and travel through Europe. That’s what Enzo would’ve wanted for me, and I deserve it after all we’ve gone through.. I also kind of leave tomorrow.”

“WHAT? SERIOUSLY? Bonnie Bennett!! Not you too!!” Caroline huffed.

“I love you.” Bonnie mouthed to her.

Caroline laughed, “I’m happy for you, Bonnie. You deserve this and the whole wide world.”

“You do, none of us would be here without you.” Said Elena.

“We love you!” Said Damon, holding up his glass again for another toast.

After dinner, Elena cleared off the table and put all of the dishes in the sink. Matt ended up leaving shortly after, early shift and all, and Jeremy had decided to go with him because he had been staying at Tyler’s place so Matt wouldn’t be so alone all of the time. She hugged her brother and told him she loved him and they went on their way.

Bonnie, Caroline, and Elena decided to take the girls outside and let them run around in the backyard since it was still daylight outside, while Ric and Damon decided to have bourbon in the living room.

“I can’t believe we’re all going our separate way, you guys.” Caroline pouted. “What if we all lose contact and never speak again?"

“Care, that’s never gonna happen.” Elena chuckled, “We’ve been best friends since forever and that’s never gonna change.”

“Yeah, we can always facetime, and I’ll be back in Mystic Falls eventually,” Bonnie told her.

“Yeah, and Damon and I will come back for visits too.”

“You better keep your promises, I love you guys,” Caroline replied, bringing them all into a group hug.

The girls sat around and talked for a little while longer, about life stuff and future plans. Elena told them about Med school and the plans she and Damon had. Caroline talked about motherhood and how exhausting, but rewarding, it was.. and even Stefan. His death had been really hard on her too, they were meant to be, but things just kept getting in the way.

Once it got dark, the girls decided to go back inside the house, and Bonnie decided she had better call it a night too. She said goodbye to her friends and told them she’d see them soon enough and left with a smile. She had an early flight out in the morning and she was happy with the direction her life was going.

After saying goodbye to Bonnie, Elena and Damon wanted to sit down with Caroline and Ric and talk about the boarding house. Damon told them what he had told Elena, how this is what Stefan would’ve wanted.. and there was no point in letting the house sit around.

“You’re gonna give us this place?” Ric asked.

“Yeah, Stefan loved the boarding house, and he would love the idea that all these super kids would have a place to learn and be themselves. I wanna give you the opportunity to do that, for them.” He smiled, looking over at the twins.

“Damon, I don’t know what to say—“ Ric replied.

“Just say, “Hey Damon, thanks. I’m gonna love this place just like you do.. and I’m not gonna burn the place to the ground’”

Ric and Caroline laughed. “Thanks, Damon, seriously.” Caroline smiled. “Raising future powerful witches is hard, and this really will help.”

Damon smiled and nodded.

“So you’re just gonna give us your house?” Josie asked.

“Yup.” Damon smiled at her.

“But where are you and auntie Lena gonna stay?”

“We’re gonna go to this really cool place in Oregon, and auntie Lena is gonna be a doctor and fix people’s boo-boos.”

“What are you gonna do?” Lizzie asked.

“I’m gonna-“ he paused “I’m gonna make tasty drinks and sell them.”

“Ohhh.” The twins said in sync.

They all laughed at the curiosity of the twins. After sitting around talking for a little while longer, Caroline and Ric decided they should probably get home soon. Caroline hugged Elena while Ric put the girls in the car.

“I’m really happy that you’re happy, Elena.”

“I’m happy that you’re happy too, Care. You’ve always wanted to be a mom, and you’re doing amazing.”

They said their final goodbyes for the night and Elena softly closed the door. Falling next to Damon on the couch, he offered her his drink and she happily obliged.

“Tired?” He asked, watching her take a sip of the honey-colored bourbon.

“Very.” She sighed, “you?”

“A little... Why don’t you go lay down? I’ll clean up and come to bed in a few.”

“No, you did most of the cooking. Let me clean up, you go relax. I’m not taking no for an answer.” She replied, giving him back his empty glass.

“Or we could both clean up.”

“Damon.” She kissed him. “Go.” And again. “Relax.” And once more.

He chuckled and gave in to her demands.

If he was being honest with himself, he didn’t want to be alone. When he was alone is when his mind starting running a hundred million thoughts. When Elena disappeared into the kitchen, he got up and set his glass back down beside the alcohol... He couldn’t drink like he used to, and honestly, he didn’t want to, he didn’t need to. The craving for blood was no longer there.

He walked up the steps and found himself wandering the house, wandering all the way to Stefan’s room. He didn’t know what to do with all of his baby brother's things, he no longer needed them, and soon enough they would be moving. He walked over to the dresser and picked up a picture of Stefan and Elena and he smiled. They looked so happy, and she looked so innocent.. it was back before she even knew vampires existed.

He set the picture back down and ran his finger across the shelf that held all of his journals, the ones he had left anyways. He thought back to all of the times he teased him about keeping them and smiled to himself. He walked over and sat down on the bed, just letting himself look around and feel. Eventually, the emotions started to overwhelm him, so he let himself feel. There was no need to run away from his feelings anymore, he needed to be honest with himself and with the people around him.

He eventually got up from the bed and turned the light off, and quietly shut the door behind him. Walking into his room, he saw Elena in the bathroom. She was brushing her teeth.

“Hey, I didn’t hear you come up.” He whispered softly behind her.

“I haven’t been up here too long, I wanted to moisturize my face and brush my teeth before going to bed.” She replied, looking at him through the mirror.

His arms were wrapped around her waist and he smiled at her, “you should’ve come and got me.”

She sat her face cream down on the sink and turned around to look at him. “I figured you needed some time alone.” She said, stroking his hair.

The thing about humans were they didn’t heal as quickly. So his puffy, red eyes confirmed what she already knew. She heard him in Stefan’s room, and she chose not to interrupt that. He needed to grieve in his own way. Like him, the first few weeks, hell months, after her parents died she would go lay in their bed and cry, be angry, and miss them. She figured if he needed her, he would say something.

“Alone time is overrated.” He joked.

She smiled. “Come on, let’s go to bed. I’ll let you be the little spoon.”

He laughed, “Okay, let me brush my teeth.”

Once he was done and stripped of his clothing, he climbed into bed beside her. She wrapped him in her arms and he laid his head on her chest. Something he’d really grown to like these days, it was the only way he could hear her heartbeat. She played with the ends of his hair on the back of his neck until eventually, he fell asleep, and it wasn’t long after that, she did too.

—

The next morning, he woke up first. He knew it was early because the sun was hardly up. He looked down at his beautiful girl who was sleeping so peacefully in front of him and pulled her a little closer. Sometime during the night, he had become the big spoon. He kissed the back of her head and pulled the covers up over them a bit better. He ended up laying in bed holding her for what seemed like forever until he decided to get up and make them breakfast.

He knew he needed to make a game plan of how the next few weeks were going to play out. He needed to find a safe storage facility for all of the stuff they couldn’t take with them, he needed his personal documents (birth certificate, driver's license, etc.) and also movers.

While making mental notes he started to also make omelets. It was one of his and Elena’s favorite breakfast. He cracked eggs into the bowl and mixed them. Soon after that he added his toppings and put it in the pan.

“I knew I would find you here.” She giggled.

“Hey, you.” He smiled and she walked over to him. He kissed her cheek and then turned to check the food. She laid her head on the center of his back, and wrapped her arms around his waist, holding him in place.

“It smells, really, really good.”

“It has all of your favorites in it too.” He replied.

“Why are you so good to me?” She giggled, kissing his back.

“I’m just practicing so I’ll be a good trophy husband, that and I love you.” He smirked.

She giggled again, “I love you, back.”

When breakfast was done, they made their plates and sat down at the table.

“So, where do you wanna start? With all of the getting our stuff together and moving.” He asked, taking a bite.

“Well, I definitely have to go out today. We’re getting low on food, and completely out of condoms…” She smirked. “Which I swear, as soon as we get to Portland and I find a doctor, I’m gonna get birth control, I hate using those stupid things.”

Damon laughed, “I have not had to worry about condoms in over a hundred years, I hate them too... but I will say, they’ve come a long way.”

“They had condoms when you started having sex?” She laughed.

“They were a relatively new invention.. and they sucked!” He told her, doing the eye thing. “Pun intended.”

She laughed again, “well, we are not spending our human lives using condoms until we’re married!”

He smiled at her, big. He couldn’t wait until the day he married her. “What else do you need to do today?”

“Other than shopping, I don’t think anything else.”

“Okay, well if you want, while you shop I’ll look for storage facility’s and then we can start packing everything up.” He replied.

“Sounds perfect.” She smiled, taking another bite of her omelet.

After they finished breakfast, they cleaned up and got ready. Elena ended up meeting up with Caroline for shopping, and Damon found a nice storage place right outside of town, but closer to Whitmore.

—-  
Their life for the next few weeks turned out to be chaotic. The Salvatore mansion had a lot of stuff in it to packed up. A lot of antiques, and a lot of things that Damon didn’t want to get rid of. They made two separate piles: things that would go to Portland, and things that would go to storage.

They decided they would only take their bed, clothes, and personal items to Portland, and the rest of the furniture would stay. All of Stefan’s items and furniture would go to storage as well. They did decide however they would keep all of his journals and photos with them, along with all of their items.

Packing up the house they found a lot of neat stuff. They found a lot of pictures of Damon and Stefan through the years, including baby photos and through their childhood. Elena even found a very old photo of Damon when he was in the Civil War.

“Oh my god, Damon!!!” Elena yelled.

“What? What’s wrong?” Damon rushed in.

“Was this taken when you were in the war?” She asked, holding up a photo of Damon in a very old suit with a hat.

He laughed and took the picture from her hand. “You almost gave me a heart attack over a picture?”

“Sorry,” she kissed his cheek. “But look at you.” She said in a soft voice, puckering her bottom lip. “So cute!”

He playfully rolled his eyes, “you say that about every picture you see of me.”

“But it’s true, you’ve been adorable since day one..” She bit her lip, “Actually I take that back about this one.. in this picture… you’re hot. Your hair all curly in the front.”

He smirked, “Oh, is that so?”

“Yeah, 1864 Damon was a babe.” She whispered seductively.

“Was?”

“Still is.” She replied, bringing his head down to meet her's for a kiss.

—

After going through everything, they had it all boxed and packed in about three and a half weeks. In that time, Elena got her papers from Whitmore about her undergraduate in applied microbiology and biotechnology. Caroline also helped Damon get all of the legal forms he needed, like a birth certificate, and driver's license, etc.

The last week they spent in Mystic Falls they put everything into storage except the things they were taking to Portland, the movers would move the rest of the stuff when they left. They spent the rest week with their friends, having dinners, and going out.

The last night they spent there, they all went and had drinks at the Grill. They were there for hours. Elena looked around and her heart swelled. Everyone, minus Bonnie (who was loving Paris) was all in one room together, one last time for what would be a little while. They were both sad to leave their life in Mystic Falls, but they couldn’t wait to start the next chapter in their lives.

After leaving the Grill, Damon and Elena decided to drive around a bit before going home. They wanted to say goodbye to the town that gave and took so much.

They found themselves driving until they were on the road they first met on and Damon pulled over to the side of the road.

“Come with me.” He smiled, opening his door.

They both got out of his car and he grabbed her hand, walking them both to the middle of the road.

“One last time, cause we won’t be able to this in Portland.”

She smiled at him and they both laid down in the middle of the road, their heads together.

“You know, I never understood why you loved doing this so much until I turned off my humanity.”

He laughed, “yeah, it’s very peaceful, been doing it for years. It’s a great way to clear your mind.”

She exhaled and scooted closer to him, intertwining their arms together. They laid there for a bit, quietly just looking at the stars.

It was him who finally moved. He stood up and held out his hands to help her up.

“Who would’ve thought, almost 10 years later we’d be here. Human, together, leaving Mystic Falls.” He said, looking around them.

“That seems like lifetimes ago.” She smiled, “So much has happened since then, so much change, and grief.”

“Enough for an entire lifetime.” He replied. “But no more. I’m here, making a promise to give you everything you want out of life.”

“You’ve already given me everything, Damon.” She smiled, wrapping her arms around his neck. “A love that consumes me. Passion, adventure, a little danger.” She smiled.

“It’s only gonna get better from here, baby.” He whispered, pulling her into a hug.

Once they got back into the car, they drove back to the Salvatore house. After a day of spending time with their friends, and all of the packing and making sure everything was ready to go, they were beat. So once they got back home, it wasn’t long before they were both asleep.  
—

The next morning they woke up to an alarm going off at 6 am. Elena groaned, and rolled back over, causing Damon to chuckle.

“Come on, sleeping beauty. The movers will be here in an hour.” He whispered, leaving a trail of kisses from her nose, to her cheeks, to her lips.

“Just 5 more minutes..” She whispered. “Please?” She gave him the puppy dog eyes.

“Okay, 5 more minutes. But when I get the shower ready, you’re coming in with me.”

“Mhm, deal.” She replied sleepily.

He smiled down at her and covered her back up. He made his way to the shower and turned it on so it would be warm for them, got the towels, and laid out the rest of the stuff they would need to finish getting ready.

He walked back over pressed another kiss to her lips.

“That was not 5 minutes.”

“No, it was actually a little bit longer.” He replied, pulling the covers off of her.

She huffed, “Fine.”

Damon smiled and dragged her out of bed, they quickly undressed and stepped into the warm shower.

“Gonna miss this shower and all of its shower heads.” She moaned, letting the water hit her back.

After they showered and finished getting ready, they packed up the rest of their clothes and Damon put their suitcases into his car. By the time they were done the movers were there.

Shortly after that, Jeremy, Caroline, the girls, and Ric showed up too!

“Well brother, the keys are yours,” Damon said, handing over the house key to Alaric. “But I’m keeping a set.”

“I can’t thank you enough, Damon. Caroline and I are grateful, and Jo would be too.” He said, bringing Damon in for a hug.

“She would’ve loved to see them, they’re pretty special little humans.” He smiled, winking at the twins.

“Give Uncle Damon and Auntie Lena hugs, they’re about to go bye-bye,” Ric told them.

The girls ran to Damon first, he picked them both up and gave them hugs and a kiss on the forehead. “I love you, kiddos. Make sure you keep an eye on your good ole dad for me.”

They laughed, “we will.” They said in sync.

When Damon set them down, they ran over into Elena’s arms. “We will miss you, Lena. Sorry we didn’t get to see you for a long time.” Jossie said, holding Elena’s hand.

“I’ll be back soon for a visit.” Elena smiled, and hugged them both again, kissing them on the top of their heads as she stood up.

Damon walked over to Jeremy next. “Little Gilbert, don’t be a stranger. As long as you’re supernatural free.”

Jeremy laughed and hugged Damon. “I love you too, Damon.” He replied, and then hugged Elena.

“I’m actually gonna be here, helping Caroline and Alaric with the school. Teach them how to fight and be hunters... Just in case they need it.”

Elena smiled. “I’m proud of you, Jer.”

Caroline was next and was already crying. She opened her arms and hugged Damon and Elena at once. “I’m gonna miss you guys!!”

“Don’t worry, Blondie, we’ll visit,” Damon smirked.

“You better, because I swear if you don’t I will kick your as-“ She stopped herself. “Butt, from Portland to the Canadian border.”

They both laughed and Elena hugged her once more, “I love you, Caroline. I’ll call you when we make it.”

After saying their final goodbyes, they told the movers that they were leaving and that Caroline would supervise, that when they got done they could go ahead and leave.

Waving goodbye one last time, Damon and Elena pulled out of the driveway to the Salvatore Boarding House, they smiled at each other and started the road trip to a new life!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that I'm skipping around a lot with the time, but I just didn't wanna drag out the moving and stuff for too long! Now that they are leaving Mystic Falls, it's gonna slow down a lot. I promise! :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for taking so long to update, this took forever to write. Also, this chapter VERY smutty. I hope you enjoy!

Road trips were their thing. Over the years they’ve bonded over countless road trips, from the first one they took to Georgia, to the one they took to Denver, and so many more in between. It always gave them boding time, and they both really enjoyed them.

Damon had seen the world, and Elena had only seen a little piece of it. They figured road tripping to Portland would be fun and would give them more quality time and the opportunity to have a fun trip for once. He promised her she would see the world, and this was a start.

After leaving Mystic Falls, they made their first stop of the day, at a little cafe about a half an hour outside of town. They found it the summer that Elena graduated, and it had became one of their favorite breakfast spots. They would sit in the very back of the restaurant in a little circular booth next to each other, and share a plate of the waffles. They came topped with whipped cream, strawberries, and a little dash of cinnamon.

Taking the first bite, Damon moaned. “Best. Waffles. EVER.”

Elena giggled and agreed, taking a huge bite. “I can’t believe you went 5 years without these! They seriously are the best I’ve ever had.”

“There’s no point unless I have my girl.” He winked.

She smiled, and took another bite, leaving the edge of her lip covered in whipped cream. Damon smirked, and before she could wipe her mouth, he kissed her, sucking the whipped cream off of her bottom lip.

“Mmm, even tastier.”

“If you keep that up, we’re not gonna get to finish them.” She whispered seductively, grabbing his upper thigh.

He grinned at her and took another bite.

Once they finished eating, they started driving again. They listened to the radio a lot. Elena wanted to listen to all of the songs she had missed out on while being asleep or at least the ones Damon thought she would like. They also talked a lot, about anything and everything, and then sometimes they would sit in comfortable silence and hold hands, playing the license’s plate game that Damon loved so much.

About 2 hours in they stopped for gas and then continued, this time Elena driving.

“You’re staring at me, Damon.” She smiled, glancing at him from the corner of her eye.

“Just observing... Thinking about how hot you look driving my car.”

She playfully rolled her eyes and sped the car up a bit.

After driving for a while, Elena noticed Damon had fallen asleep. He looked so peaceful, his head was laid over to the side and his lips were smooshed against his shoulder. She grabbed her phone and snapped a picture, and then reached for the blanket in the backseat and covered him up with it.

He slept for what seemed like forever, or at least until they had to get gas again. When she pulled in and over to the pump, he stirred in his sleep.

“Mm, where are we?” He asked, sitting up.

“Somewhere just outside of Tennessee!” She replied, taking off her seatbelt.

He looked at the time, “you’ve been driving for 4 hours?”

She giggled, “And you’ve been asleep for 4 hours.”

He smiled and kissed her cheek. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to leave you all alone and bored. I don’t even remember being sleepy.”

“It’s okay, to be fair, you’re human now.. and we actually need our rest.”

He smiled and nodded, “oh yeah, humans.”

She shook her head and giggled, “so you pump the gas and I’ll go pee and pay!”

“Woah, Woah, slow your roll speedy pants. You can’t go pee alone!”

She looked at him, confused. “Why not?”

“Because we’re in the middle of nowhere Virginia at a sketchy gas station and you have no protection, I’m not taking any risks.” He said, walking over to her.

She sighed and knew there was no point in trying to convince him otherwise, so she grabbed ahold of his arm and they walked inside.

She spotted the bathroom in the very back.

“I’ll be right here.” He told her, standing outside of the door.

She wasn’t in there long, and it was surprisingly clean for what really was a very sketchy gas station. When she was done, she walked back out.

“Need to go?” She asked him.

He nodded and told her to wait for him, and she playfully rolled her eyes again. It wasn’t long before he came out too.

“You want anything?” He asked.

“I’m okay.” She replied.

He nodded and they walked up to the counter and paid for the gas. This time it would be Damon’s turn to drive and let Elena rest. Once they were back in the car and on the road, after about an hour and a half, Elena was asleep. She rested her head on Damon’s shoulder, and he gently stroked the top of her head. She didn’t sleep as long as him though.

It took about another 2 and a half hours to finally get to Nashville. They decided they would stop there to have lunch and fill back up. In total, they had been on the road for about 8 hours, but they at least wanted to make it through Tennessee before stopping for the night.

They chose a little bar downtown and had burgers and beer for lunch.

“This reminds me of the time you kidnapped me and took me to Georgia.” She giggled.

“I think kidnapping is a bit extreme, considering you had a blast, but yes me too.” He laughed. “And it still saddens me to this day that you don’t eat your pickles.” He says, grabbing them off of her plate.

It was nice to see him so carefree, she hadn’t seen that part of him since the summer before she went to college. It made her happy to see him laugh so freely, and be his bubbly self… Not worrying about all of the vampires, and werewolves, and whatever else supernatural creatures that decided to come about.

After lunch, they found an ice cream place and decided to stop and get cones. He got vanilla, and she got chocolate.

“I’ll give you a bite of mine if you give me a bite of yours.” She told him, holding her cone up to his mouth. He took a lick and offered her his.

When they got back on the road, it was Damon who was driving. They were gonna drive to Memphis and call it a night. It took about another 3 hours, putting them at the hotel around 9 PM.

When they arrived, Elena and Damon got out of the car and went to the trunk, grabbing the bag that had their overnight stuff in it. Together, they walked inside the hotel and checked in.

Their room was on almost on the top floor, giving them a beautiful view of the water and the Memphis/Arkansas bridge.

“Look at the view!” She said, excitingly, “it’s beautiful!”

“It is.” He replied, kissing the top of her head. “We're definitely not in Mystic Falls anymore.”

She laughed, “Nope, definitely not.”

They admired the view for a few more minutes and closed the shades. Damon walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed, and Elena walked over with him, standing in between his legs. She kissed his lips softly, running her fingers over his shoulders and pushing off his leather jacket. His hands came up around her thighs and pulled her down onto his lap.

“I want you...” She mumbled against his lips.

“You have me.” He mumbled back, breaking the kiss long enough to push the t-shirt over her head.

“Take me to the shower.”

He smiled and stood up, her legs still wrapped around his waist, and walked them into the bathroom. They quickly started to undress, Damon was first so he turned on the shower and adjusted the water.

Once she was naked, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him in for another kiss, her tongue begging for entrance into his mouth. Access granted. She could feel him hard against her belly, so she backed them up and into the shower.

“Ohh, condoms.” Damon groaned.

She sighed, “It’s okay, just pull out," and kissed him again.

“Elena..” He managed in between kisses. “That’s really-“

“Please, Damon, I know it’s irresponsible, but I can’t wait for you to go find and then grab them out of the bag.”

He was going to insist because he knew exactly where they were, but then her hand was on his cock and he found himself barely being able to breathe, let alone think or talk.

He backed her up against the shower wall, and her legs wrapped around his waist once again. He slowly pushed into her, and they both moaned. She kissed him again, kissing from his lips down to his neck as he thrust slowly inside of her, his mouth found one of her nipples and she let out a breathy moan.

Holding her up with one hand, his other one found her clit, massaging it until her body tensed up and her walls start clenching around him. He held her tightly as she rode out her orgasm, kissing her face and continuing to pump in and out of her.

She sighed with a smile and pulled him in for another kiss on the lips.

“How do you wanna finish?” She whispered seductively, “like this? Or in my mouth?”

He nearly came right then. “You are gonna be the death of me with that mouth.” He said breathlessly.

She laughed, “Mouth it is.” She copied his eye thing.

She placed her feet on the shower floor and kneeled in front of him. She licked her lips, and then made a long swipe from the base of his cock to the tip with her tongue.

“Ohh, Elena.” He breathed out, looking down at her, bobbing her head back and forth. He gently thrust into her mouth, and she looked up at him, locking her eyes with his. It didn’t take much longer before-

“I’m about to-“ He said, breathing heavily as his body tensed up.

She kept him inside of her mouth while he finished, swallowing down every last bit of him.

When he finally recovered, he pulled her onto her feet, “you have no idea just how good you are, baby. You take my breath away.” He looked at her lovingly.

She smirked, and ran her fingers through his hair, pulling his head down for a kiss.

Once they finished, they quickly showered and got ready for bed.

“I love you, Damon... Just in case I didn’t say it enough today.” She whispered, snuggling next to him, laying her head on his chest.

He kissed her forehead and sleepily whispered, “I love you back, and you can’t say it enough, I’ll never be tired of hearing it.”

They both smiled, falling into a deep and peaceful sleep.

—

The next morning, she woke up to an empty bed. She sat up and looked all around the room, Damon was nowhere to be found. As if on cue, he walked in the door, startling her a bit. 

“Morning, sunshine.” He smiled, bending down to kiss her. 

“It would be a good morning if you were still in this bed.” She pouted. 

“I went and got breakfast sandwiches.” He told her, kicking off his boots and crawling back up next to her. “You’re favorite. Mozzarella, tomato, basil, with a poached egg on an English muffin.”

“You really are too good to me.” She smiled, taking the sandwich and kissing him.

After breakfast, they got ready for the day. They brushed their teeth and fixed their hair. Elena wore comfy shorts and a comfy shirt, and Damon wore his usual jeans and a black t-shirt.

By 9 AM they were back on the road, leaving Memphis and driving through Arkansas, and eventually into Oklahoma. They made good time, after stops and lunch they made it to Oklahoma City at around 6 pm. They decided to continue driving to Wichita, Kansas before they called it a night. When they arrived at the motel, by the time they checked in, showered, and were in bed it was closer to 12:30 AM.

The next morning they decided to sleep in, or at least until 11:00 when the front desk gave them a courtesy call, saying that check out was in one hour. 

“Uhm, thank you.” She heard Damon say, stirring in her sleep.

She felt him scoot closer to her again, spooning her. 

“It’s time to wake up.” He whispered, giving her sweet kisses down the side of her face.

She smiled, rolling so that she could face him. “Good morning.”

“Good morning,” he replied, bringing her in for a kiss.

“As much as I love this road trip, I can’t wait until the day I can sleep until noon.” She giggled. 

He laughed at her, “Not much longer, but I think you’re really gonna enjoy where we’re staying for the night.”

“Where?” She asked, “I thought we weren't planning anything on this road trip, just, and I quote, ‘me, my girl, and nothing but the open road for 5 or 6 whole days.’”

“I did say that,” he smirked. “But, when you see the place you’ll know. So, therefore, my lips are sealed.”

She raised her brow at him, “fine.” 

“Fine.” He smiled, kissing her once more. “You can take a shower first if you want to.”

“Or, you could come with me.” She smirked. 

They quickly showered, packed up, and checked out of the hotel in an hour. The filled the car up with gas, putting them back on the road around 12:30. While Damon was driving, Elena received a call, causing them both to smile, she answered it and put it on speaker. 

“Bonbon, how is Paris?” He answered. 

“Oh hello, Elena.” Bonnie giggled.

“Hey, Bonnie!” 

“Paris is absolutely wonderful. It’s beautiful here, and the food is to die for!” She told them. “By the way, Damon, thank you for recommending Le Procope, you were not over execrating about their apple pie, it was delicious.”

“I told you, amazing!” He replied. “I found that place in the early 1900s, and every time I go to Paris, I have that pie.”

They talked to Bonnie for a few more minutes and then ended the call. She was just calling to check in and see how things were. After the phone call, they continued to play their road game.

After stopping almost every hour so that Elena could pee, they made it to Colorado in about 5 hours. 

“Colorado brings back memories.” Elena looked over at him smiling. 

“It sure does.” He replied,.

They stopped at a bar about 30 minutes in and had lunch, and after lunch, it only took them about 2 and a half more hours to get to their destination. 

“Oh, I know where this is going.” Elena looked over at him. “Denver!”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He replied. 

She leaned in closer and whispered in his ear, “you wanna go back and do all the things you wanted to do to me that night, don’t you?” 

His breath hitched as her hand slid from his face down to his chest. “Maybe.”

“Such a romantic.” She smiled.

They drove to the little hotel they once stayed at, about 5 minutes away from downtown Denver.

“Stay here, I’m gonna go check us in.” Damon smiled, getting out of the car.

While she was waiting, she decided to text Caroline and let her know they were stopping for the night.

_'Made it to a safe stopping place! Love u!'_

Caroline quickly replied, _‘Love u!!!’_

By the time she read it and put her phone away, Damon was back.

“You look smug.” Elena grinned at him.

“They may have had room 236 available, and I may have gotten it.” He smirked.

“You remembered what room number?”

“How could I ever forget?”

They drove around to the other side of the building and parked. They once again gathered the bag with their things in it and made their way up the stairs and down the corridor and into the room.

“Well, it’s not as luxurious, but it’s just how I remember it,” Damon said, walking in behind her closing the door.

She sat her bag down on one of the two beds and smiled, “it’s perfect. And so thoughtful of you that it makes me wanna cry.” She replied.

He walked over and wrapped his arms around her, placing a kiss on top of her head. “Just don’t tell anyone how thoughtful, gotta keep up the bad boy reputation.”

She laughed and nudged his shoulder, he smiled. “Go freshen up, we can go get some dinner and I’ll show you the city.”

“Sounds good.” She smiled and kissed him.

She grabbed her things and headed to the bathroom. She took a quick shower, shaved her legs, and afterward put on a black, laced cami bodysuit and pair of ripped, black jeans. She left her hair down and natural.

She looked a little like Katherine, she thought to herself. But she really liked this outfit, so who cares, right?

When she walked out of the bathroom, Damon was laying on the bed watching TV.

“You look stunning.” He told her, flipping off the tv.

“Thanks.” She smiled.

He got up off of the bed and told her he wouldn’t take long. While she waited she unpacked some of their things and grabbed her diary.

_‘Dear Diary,_

_Today makes three days we’ve been on the road. It’s been wonderful. Being alive again makes everything feel so different, exhilarating, precious. Being human has changed Damon too. Not really changed him, but he seems happier, carefree, and less stressed out. Fighting off supernatural creatures seems to do that. He still misses Stefan a lot too, so do I. And for once in a long time, everyone I hold closest is safe, and so are we. So here’s to a happy human life. - E’_

When she finished writing in her journal, she put it into the nightstand drawer, and by that time Damon was coming out of the bathroom wearing black jeans and a gray v-neck t-shirt. Damn, she never got tired of seeing him.

“Ready to go?” He asked.

“Yep!”

They grabbed their things and headed back down to the car. They went to a restaurant that was in the middle of downtown Denver and chose a table on the roof overlooking the city. There were lights all around the railing, and the rest of the place was lit up by all of the tall skyscrapers. The restaurant had a live band that was playing slow jazz.

“Can I get you guys started with some drinks?” A brown-headed girl asked them.

“Yeah sure, I’m gonna have water and bourbon,” Damon told her.

"And for you, ma'am."

“I’ll have the Summer Water Rosé and also a glass of water.”

“Okay, just gonna need to see some ID..” She smiled.

Damon had to stop himself from laughing. Elena looked at him and smiled, reaching into her purse to drag out her ID, and he pulled his from his back pocket.

“Okay…” she said looking at them. “Great, be back in a sec.”

They both laughed when she left the table.

“That’s the first time I’ve ever had to show my ID,” Damon told her.

“Actually same…” Elena told him and then started laughing again. “I was in a spiritual coma for my 21st birthday.”

Damon raised his eyebrows, “oh yeah.”

By that time, the waitress came back with their drinks and asked them if they were ready to order, Elena told her they needed a few more minutes, and then they started to look over the menu.

“Everything looks so good.” She told him.

“Agreed, but I think I’m gonna have the salmon.” He told her, taking a sip of his drink.

“Ohh, where do you see that?”

“Flip the page… and right there.” He pointed to it.

“Agreed. I’m gonna have what you’re having.”

It wasn’t long before the waitress came back and they ordered their food. While they waited, they drank and talked.

“This place is beautiful, it reminds me of a smaller, less crowded New York.” She told him.

“Yeah, it is, you should see it in the snow. The mountains are all covered, it can be breathtaking. But it sucks to drive in it.”

“Did you ever stay here?” She asked.

“No, no longer than a night, if that. It was mostly just driving through.” He smiled.

He could definitely get used to this, being human. He forgot how much he missed being normal. He always missed being human a little bit, but now that he is once again, he wishes they could’ve done it a hell of a lot sooner. He looked forward to having the perfect life with her. He could imagine them going on dates, and spending holidays together, and even someday raising a family with her.

It didn’t take long for their food to come, and it was amazing. The salmon was cooked perfectly, and so was their side of asparagus. Once they finished eating, they paid and then decided to explore the city.

Going down the strip they saw some neat shops, and bars, but Elena took Damon into a nightclub. They ended up staying there for about an hour, drinking and dancing.

When they finally decided to leave, they walked back to Damon’s car hand in hand.

“Thank you for tonight, I had a lot of fun.” She told him.

“The pleasure was all mine.” He kissed her forehead.

He opened the car door for her and got her safely inside before going around and getting in himself. It took about 5 minutes to get back to the motel, from downtown.

When they arrived, they both got out of the car and started walking back up to the room when Elena dragged them to the left of where they needed to be.

Damon smirked and walked them back to where she was resting on the structure. “Now, where were we?”

“I think your hands were here.” She whispered, placing his hands on her ass. “And your lips were here…” She said tapping her lips, that were just mere inches from his.

She pulled him in for a kiss, a very passionate kiss. She ran her fingers through his hair and pulled him closer, caressing her tongue with his. He grabbed her ass and pushed his hips into hers. He pulled away from the kiss, only to place hot opened mouthed kissed from her neck down to her chest and she moaned.

“I could’ve killed your brother for walking out here that night... again.” He panted. “I wanted you for so long, and when I finally had you, it was over before it even began.”

She moaned again, “I wanted you just as much, Damon, I was just too afraid to admit that to myself.”

This would be the part where she ripped his shirt in half and kissed his chest, but she didn’t have the strength for that anymore, so she slid her hands under it instead. She ran her hands over his chest, and down, letting her finger follow his happy tail. “Room.” She whispered.

They quickly made their way down the corridor, and to the right. Elena fumbled with the card, trying to push the door open, but it wouldn’t register. Finally, Damon took it, and slowly inserted it, and pulled it out and the light turned green.

She quickly pushed the door open, and they both walked in, closing the door behind them. He locked both the actual lock, and the chain, and Elena closed all of the curtains.

“Finally.” She smirked, kissing him softly. “Now you can do all the things you wanted to do to me that night before my brother rudely interrupted.” She chuckled.

He smiled and picked her up, laying her down on the left bed. He took off her shoes and placed them on the floor, kicking off his boots before climbing on top of her.

“I wanted to bring you back inside, and onto this bed.” He whispered, kissing her on the lips. “And I wanted to rip off your clothes, and kiss every inch of this beautiful body.” He added, kissing down her neck.

Sitting both of them up and reaching for the bottom of her shirt, she stopped him.

“You have to do the pants first,” she panted. “It’s a bodysuit.”

He laughed a little and made his way to the button of her jeans, quickly un-did them, and slid them down her long, silky legs. He kissed his way back up, showing each leg just as much appreciation as the other until he found the buttons at the end of her bodysuit.

He quickly undid them and pulled the fabric up and over her head. She wasn’t wearing a bra, so he placed a chaste kiss on her lips and made his way down to her breasts. He swiped his tongue over her nipple, and then fully took it into his mouth, sucking and biting it. It was a little bit of pain and a whole lot of pleasure for her and it was overwhelmingly turning her on.

“Damon…” She moaned softly.

He looked up and gave her a smirk, and after giving the second breast just as much attention as the first, he made a trail of kisses from her chest, and over her stomach, to her thighs.

“Damon, please!” He heard her. Sitting up, she grabbed his shirt, pulling him down on top of her, and then flipping him over so that she was on top.

She lifted his shirt up over his head and threw it down somewhere behind them and made a trail of her own kisses down his neck and onto his chest. While her lips were at work, her hands found his jeans. She could feel how hard he was through the denim fabric, and quickly found the button to release him. He lifted his hips to help her, and together they got pesky jeans and tight underwear off of him. His erection was more perceptible now, and she smiled, grinding her hips against it.

“Condoms,” she whispered, and he nodded. “They’re in the nightstand drawer.” She added.

“preparation, that was a good idea.” He panted, reaching his arm out to the drawer and fumbling inside for the box of condoms.

Once he finally freed one, she took it from his hands. “Let me,” she smirked.

Ripping the package open and taking the condom out, she carefully rolled it onto him, making sure that it was done properly, and comfortable for him.

Once done, she climbed back on top of him, and slowly sank down onto his cock. They both sighed, and she started to slowly move her hips. He took her hands and intertwined their fingers together.

“Lena,” he whispered, looking up at her.

She was completely lost in pleasure, moving her lips in little circles, she threw her back and picked up her pace.

After a while, Damon took and flipped them over, so now he was back on top. He started to thrust into her, a little quicker, a little harder. She moaned and clutched her eyes together. Her fingernails found his back, leaving red marks from his shoulders to his mid-torso.

“Look at me, Elena.” He said softly, and she almost lost it. There was something about the fact that he wanted to have eye contact while they came together that made her heart swell and ooze out of her chest.

She responded by looking at him, his beautiful blue eyes, that could make her melt instantly. He picked up the pace of his thrusts, expertly working them both up to the perfect orgasm. His thumb found her nub and it wasn't long after that, they were both coming.

Her walls clenched around him, and both of their bodies spasmed. After riding out their orgasms, he rolled off of her. He took the condom from his body and tied it up, putting it into the garbage bin.

He pulled the covers over them and pulled her closer. She rested her head on his chest, and he put his arm around her.

“Goodnight, Damon.” She whispered and he kissed her forehead in reply.

There was no need for words, between a day of traveling, a night out, and the mind-blowing sex, they didn’t need to talk. They knew exactly how the other felt, and that was the beautiful thing about being in love.

—-

It took them two more days to drive from Denver to Portland, making the trip five days in total. It had been a long, tiring trip; full of excitement, and new life adventures, and new memories for both of them. But, it was totally worth it, they made it... Home.

As they pulled into the parking lot behind the building, Damon smiled.

“Home sweet home.”

She smiled back and kissed him.

“Ready to see the inside?” He asked.

“YES!” She said excitedly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I also just wanna apologize if there are any grammatical errors, I've been writing on little to no sleep, lol.


	4. Chapter 4

The outside of the building was beautiful from what she could see of it. The brick was a deep reddish-brown color, and there were trees all around. Getting out of the car, Damon directed her to the back entrance that was located in the parking lot. It was a little side door around the back of the building. He quickly located the keys and unlocked the door, letting her step inside first. 

When she walked inside, she was standing at the end of a short hallway, and to the right, there was a small room, and to the left, there was another door.

“Come on, I’ll give you the tour!” He said, stepping in front of her to take the lead. 

“I thought you’d never been here?”

“I haven’t, but I’ve looked at the pictures a lot in the last five years.” 

She smiled and took the hand he’d extended out to her. First, he took her into the room to the right of them. 

“So, as I've told you, the bar is on the first level, and this is gonna be the office.” He says. 

They both looked around the spacious room, as of right now it was plain. The walls were a creamy white and the crown molding was black. 

With it being a plain room, there wasn’t much to see. So he took her hand once again and lead her down the hallway into the main area. It was also very spacious, but just small enough to be intimate.

“It’s just one big room right now, but I have some ideas for it.” 

“I love it,” she told him. “It’s beautiful.” 

There was a beautiful bricked accent wall, and the ceilings were high with wooden beams. There was a large window on the left side, and in the middle, there was a large glass double door that leads to the front entrance outside. 

“Come on, let me show you our loft.” He said, doing his signature eye thing. 

He walked them back down the hallway they came in from, but this time, he walked over to the door on the right. He took the keys out of his pocket again and unlocked it. He opened the door and once again let her go first. 

When she walked inside, she immediately saw a flight of stairs. To her right, there was an entryway with a built-in bench and what she assumed was a coat closet. There were also quite a few boxes lying around from where the movers had come.

Up the stairs, they walked into a large room with an open floor plan. The walls were brick and painted a warm white color. There was also a very large window in front of the stairs across the room that lead upstairs, letting in tons of natural light. To the right, there was a kitchen and dining area. The kitchen here was a lot like the Salvatore kitchen back home, but with a loft-style twist. There was a kitchen island placed in the center with four chairs in front of it. The cabinets were a creamy white color with a concrete finished countertop. On the main counter, there was a large granite sink and a built-in gas stovetop. The appliances were all a beautiful dark gray stainless steel. 

The kitchen complimented both Elena and Damon, it was as if both of what they liked came together and had a baby.

The dining room was just as beautiful. It was to the left of the kitchen and had another big window with the view of the city and a little built-in bar area. 

The living room was the main attraction though, it was very open with tons of space and potential. 

After looking around the kitchen, dining, and living room, they made their way down the short hallway. At the end, there were two doors, one to the left and one to the right. The left door leads into one of the three bedrooms. It was a very light gray color, with a window on the left wall, and a walk-in closet in on the right.

“I was thinking since you’re starting med school soon, this could be like an office, or study room for you,” Damon told her, looking around. 

“I think that’s an amazing idea.” She replied, wrapping him in a hug. 

Directly across the hall was a bathroom. The walls were white, and the floors were black and white marbled tile. There was also a tiled shower and a single sink with white vanity and a circular mirror.

Walking back into the main living space, from the hallway, they made a left and then another left, and walked up the black wooden steps. 

Upstairs there was a balcony wall, looking over, you had the perfect view of the large window and living room. 

“I love the view from up here,” Elena told him. 

Damon smiled and wrapped her in a hug from behind. “I do too, the window will give us a perfect view of the sunrise. We could put some chairs up here in this little space.” He told her.

She smiled and leaned into him. “Where is our room?” She whispered. 

“Follow me.” 

They walked to the right and down another short hallway. Their bedroom was on the left. The room was a winter mood white color and there was a large window on the wall across from the door.

“Hey, the movers brought the bed up.” She giggled, sitting down on it.

“Yes, I gave specific instructions to do so. This would have been a BITCH to bring up by ourselves.” He laughed.

On the wall opposite of the bed, there were two more doors; one that leads into the giant walk-in closet, and one that leads into the bathroom. 

The master bathroom was light gray cemented walls, it had a walk-in tiled shower, and a bathtub almost identical to the one Damon had. There was a beautiful wooden vanity with double sinks and a white countertop, and everything had black fixtures. The floors were also black and white marble tiles, and there was a large mirror hanging over the sink.

After looking around their room, Damon took her down the left side of the hall and showed her the other spare bedroom. It looked exactly like the one downstairs and had another bathroom across the hall from it as well. 

Walking back down to the kitchen, they took a seat at the island. 

“I really, really love this place, Damon.” She smiled. “You took something I never thought we could have an made it a reality.” 

“I’m glad you like it.” He replied, kissing her. “Our happy, normal life starts now.”

—

The next week for Damon and Elena was super busy. They spent the week unpacking all of their things and putting them away and settling into the loft. Leaving almost everything back in Mystic Falls, they did a lot of shopping. They had to buy all new furniture, kitchen supplies, and anything else they might need. 

For the living room, they bought a leather sectional sofa. It was a light caramel, tan color. It matched the living room perfectly and went well with the white walls, and it also matched the color of the wooden dining table they bought.

They furnished all of the rooms in the loft except for the one spare bedroom upstairs, they would do that with time, considering they weren't expecting company anytime soon.

On top of decorating and getting the loft to the way they wanted it, Elena applied to medical school. It was stressful and there was a lot to it. She had to send in all of her transcripts and test scores, write a personal essay (which took forever to write) and have letters of recommendation.   
The letters of recommendation were the hardest part for her and made her quite sad. The only mentor she had was Jo, and well, she was gone. Damon called Ric and asked if he still had contact with Meredith Fell, thankfully he did, and after a few days and some phone calls, she sent Elena a very high praising letter of recommendation. 

By that Friday, they were completely moved in and settled. Everything was put away and all of the furniture they’d bought had arrived the previous day. They’d been looking forward to the end of a busy week and had planned on a weekend of relaxation and bliss. 

That evening, Damon had planned on making dinner for them. So while Elena was out, Damon went grocery shopping. He picked up all of the ingredients he needed for eggplant parmesan, and a nice bottle of red wine. 

When he got back to the loft, he started to cook. He washed and cut the eggplant and then let them rest while he started to make the tomato sauce. 

In the middle of that, he heard the door open and saw Elena coming up the stairs. 

“Welcome home.” He smiled, throwing the dish towel over his shoulder. 

“Hi,” she smiled back, walking over to him. “are you making eggplant parmesan?”

He smiled, “I mean technically we missed our fifth anniversary with you being in a sleep coma and all, but we can still celebrate 7 years.”

Seven years? Time really does fly by, even if she was asleep for five-ish of them. It was hard to believe she was with Damon on and off for a little over two years before she was spelled into a modern-day sleeping beauty. 

“We should definitely celebrate.” She smirked, pulling him in for a kiss. “Is that what we’re telling people, by the way? 7 and 1/2 years?” 

“I figured as much, it’ll add up with our ages,” Damon replied, chopping up the things he needed for the sauce. 

“Okay, 7 and 1/2 years it is.” she paused, "and our anniversary is?” 

“Well, that depends.” Damon smiled, “which date do you want?” 

“Well technically, we met on May 23, 2009— My parent's death date.” She paused for a moment. “Then there’s when we slept together.. and then there’s our first official date a few days after I graduated.” 

“I tell you what, we go with our first date, May 19th. A few days after your graduation.” He smiled. “But we can still celebrate the first time we met and all of the milestones that got us here.” 

She smiled, “I love you.”

“I love you back.” He replied, kissing her once more. 

“Okay, now that’s settled, how can I help?”

“You don’t have to do anything, I’m just about to put it all together.”

“Fine, I’ll open the wine.” She told him. 

Damon finished his sauce and grabbed the baking dish. He put each of the eggplant slices into the pan and scooped out the sauce on top of them. He added cheese, and a little more sauce, and then topped it off with chopped basil. 

He put the dish into the oven and turned back around to Elena who was holding a glass of wine out to him.

“Thank you.” He told her, taking a sip and then sitting it back down on the counter. 

“You’re welcome.” She smiled, sitting her glass down beside his. 

He stared down at her for a moment, brushing his fingers through the sides of her hair before he dipped his head and kissed her. “So, how was your appointment.”

“I am officially on birth control, and no more condoms.” She smirked. 

“Finally,” he wiggled his eyebrows. 

They both hated using condoms, but they both agreed that they wanted to wait a little while before having kids. 

“I got an IUD, which can last up to 12 years, and my favorite part, there are no hormones.”

“And it won’t hurt you or anything like that?” 

“Nope, perfectly safe, and when the time comes, we can have as many babies as we want.”

“Good,” he smiled again and brought his head back down for another kiss.

“I’m gonna go freshen up before dinner.” She told him, breaking the kiss. 

He nodded and grabbed his glass of wine. 

The eggplant only had a few more minutes, so while he waited, he took two plates out and sat them on the dining table along with forks and their wine glasses. 

By the time she got back downstairs, he was taking the food out of the oven and sitting it on the table.

“It smells wonderful, thank you for cooking, again.” She told him, walking over to the table.

“You’re welcome.. and someone’s gonna have to feed us while you’re out saving the world.. and you.. well, you can cook, just not as good as me.” He smirked. 

She rolled her eyes and laughed, they both knew she could barely cook.. and when she did she needed a step by step recipe.. and even then sometimes it wasn’t that great. Damon had spent over 100 years cooking, and it showed. He and Stefan were both pros.

She took the spatula and put some on his plate, and then some on hers. Taking the first bite, she moaned. It was even better than the ones she’d had in restaurants. 

“Good?” He asked.

“Better than good.” She replied, taking another bite. 

They sat at the table and finished up their dinner, talking about what they wanted to do for the weekend, and Damon’s bar. He had a lot of ideas for it, and he wanted to open sometime around January, after the holidays, that was quickly approaching, were over. It was almost mid-September.

When they were done with dinner, she collected their plates and forks and took them to the sink. She rinsed them off and then sat them in the dishwasher. They took what was left of the food, wrapped it up, and sat it in the fridge. 

By the time they were done with dinner and cleaning up, it was around 9 pm. 

“Know what we haven’t tried out yet?” Elena smirked.

“What’s that?” 

“The bathtub!” 

Damon gave her his signature eye move, and before she knew what he was doing, he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. 

“Damon!!” She giggled as he walked up the stairs. 

He carried her up and into their bedroom and then the bathroom. Sitting her down on her feet, she smiled at him. She turned the water on for the tub, and made her way over to the vanity and grabbed the bubble bath from the cabinet. 

After she poured the bubbles in, they both undressed and stepped in. He sat down first, and then she sat in between his legs, laying back on his chest.

They both sighed at how good the hot water felt. 

“This is nice,” Elena said, keeping her eyes closed.

“Mhm,” he replied against her ear, nuzzling his face in between her neck and shoulder.

He kissed her neck, sucking gently behind her ear, while his hands caress her body. 

“Damon…” she whispered, placing her hands over the top of his.

He gently started to massage her breasts, causing a moan. He took her nipples in between his thumb and index finger and gently squeezed them causing her hips to buck up a little.

“Tell me what you want, Lena.” He told her, still kissing the tender spot on her neck.

“You…” 

“Me where?” He smirked against her. “Be specific.”

She took his hands and placed them on her hips, “here.”

She could feel his smug grin against her neck as he ran his fingers over the lower part of her stomach, slowly easing down between her legs. 

When his finger found her clit she moaned loudly, laying her head back against his chest. He made slow circular motions against the little bud of nerves. While his left hand was working between her legs, his right hand found her breast once again, massaging and gently squeezing it.

“So good,” she whispered.

He could feel her body tense up as her orgasm overtook her, her legs started to shake and her back arched. He slowly continued to make circles, until her body finally rested. 

She looked up at him and brought his head down for quick a kiss, “what do you say we get out of here and finish things up in the bed?” 

“I say let’s go.” He replied. 

For the rest of the weekend, they hardly left the bedroom. They spent the time wrapped up in each other's arms. They watched movies, took a lot of naps, and had a lot of hot condomless sex. They knew that come Monday, life would start to get busy again, and they wanted to spend whatever free time they had doing what they loved, together, and with Elena starting med school (if she gets accepted), and Damon starting his business, there wouldn’t be a lot of lazy downtimes anymore, and they wanted to savor it. Life was short, and they needed to enjoy the little moments.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that this chapter was short, but the next one will be long! We're about to get into the good stuff! :)


	5. Chapter 5

The Monday ending their blissful weekend, Damon had started working on the bar. He and Elena brainstormed ideas, and she even showed him Pinterest. He wanted the bar to feel like himself. He wanted fun, but he also wanted elegance.

That morning, he woke up around nine and got out of bed and quickly showered, and threw on a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt. To start he needed to start by building the actual bar. He wanted one long bar, from wall to wall, and on the wall behind the bar, he wanted shelves to display the bottles and also a wine rack. He first started by grabbing a tape measure and measured the floor and walls. He needed to know exactly how many supplies he needed to order.

After writing down one of the measurements he needed, he heard a soft voice behind him and immediately smiled.

“You started without me!”

He turned around, she was wearing a pair of pajama shorts, a black tank top, and her pink robe.

“You were sleeping so peacefully, I didn’t wanna wake you.” He told her, standing up and placing a soft kiss on her lips.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and smiled, “good morning.”

“Good morning,” he replied, kissing her once more.

“I’m gonna go check the mail, I’m supposed to get my letter any day now,” she told him.

“Okay.”

He watched her walk over and out the front doors and to the mailbox. He continued to take his last measurement and write it down. When he was finished, he took the paper to what would be the office of the bar and sat it down on the wooden table.

When they furnished the loft, they also furnished this room. He bought a table and a leather swivel chair, that was about the same color as the sofa they picked out.

Just as he sat down, he heard her scream.

“Damon!!” His heart sunk, thinking something was wrong.

He jumped up and ran back into the main area.

“I got in!” She smiled, holding up the letter “I got in!”

He smiled big and ran over to her. He picked her up and twirled her around in his arms, when he sat her back down he looked at the letter:

‘Dear Elena Gilbert,

It is our pleasure to inform you that you have been accepted into the Oregon College of Medicine. Your thoughtful application and remarkable accomplishments have convinced us that you have the intellectual energy, imagination, and talent to flourish at our school. Once again, congratulations on your admission, and welcome to the family. We look forward to seeing you this fall.

Sincerely,

Director of Admissions’

“I’m so proud of you!” He said excitedly, “I knew you would get in.”

He picked her up once more and kissed her passionately, he held her for a moment, and then placed her back down onto the floor.

“I’m gonna go email admissions, and call Caroline!”

He smiled and nodded, “I’ll be up in a few and we can celebrate.”

With one last smile, she disappeared into the loft and he walked back to his office. Taking the piece of paper, he looked over it one last time and called a local hardware store not far from where they were. He ordered all the supplies he would need and set up a time for them to drop it off this week.

After he got off of the phone, he turned the lights off and then walked upstairs into the loft.

When he got up there, she was sitting at the island on her laptop. He walked over and placed a kiss on the top of her head and sat down beside her.

“I called Caroline, but she didn’t answer, and I just sent the email responding to my acceptance letter... So now, I’m free for the rest of the day.” She said, looking over at him.

“Well, all of my supplies are ordered and I’m all yours... How do you suppose we start this celebration off?” He asked.

“I have a few ideas,” she smirked, biting her lip.

He leaned his head down to kiss her, and she pulled him in for a more passionate kiss. She traced his bottom lip with her tongue until he granted her entrance into his sweet mouth. Without breaking the kiss, he stood up from the stool he was sitting on, and his hands found her hips, pulling her closer to him. He placed hot, opened mouthed kisses from her lips down her neck before lifting her off of the stool and moving her over to the countertop.

She wrapped her legs around his waist and his hands ran over her smooth, silky skin. She lifted the black t-shirt up and over his head, throwing it onto the floor and then started working on his belt. As her hands worked on getting his jeans open, he started placed kisses all over her chest, and up and behind her ears.

“You know, I’ve never done it in a kitchen before.” She chuckled, ghosting her fingers over the waistband of his jeans and underwear.

“I know,” he whispered back against her skin, “Bonbon walked in before we could get to the good part.”

She laughed, running her fingers through his dark, luscious locks as he devoured her skin.

Finally, pulling his head from her chest, he lifted her shirt over her head and threw it down onto the growing pile. She wasn’t wearing a bra and he smiled, licking his lips. He ran his thumbs across her rich colored nipples and they hardened beneath him.

“Mmm,” she moaned, throwing her head back.

“You are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life.” He told her, looking at her with pure affection.

She smiled and tugged on his waistband again. He stepped back for a moment and quickly discarded his pants, and stepped in-between her legs once again. He grabbed her thighs and pulled her slightly forward before taking his cock into his hand and teasing at her entrance. He was hard as steel and she was soaking wet, and after moments of teasing, he slowly pushed inside of her.

They both signed in pleasure as he completely filled her up. Her legs once again wrapped around his body and his mouth found hers. They kissed slowly, their tongues dancing, and their teeth gently biting each other's lips. His hips moved slowly in and out of her, and Elena followed his lead as their hips became synchronized.

It was slow at first, the thrusting and the kissing, and then it became very frantic, but still very expert. His hips moved quickly with her’s, and Elena’s hand roamed down his back, cupping his ass and penetrating him deeper inside of her.

“So close,” she whispered, clenching around him like a vise.

He gripped her thighs once again, and looked into her eyes, thrusting faster and faster with each pump. When he felt her body tense up, he let himself go too, and they came together.

After coming down from their high, she rested her head against his chest and he wrapped her in his arms, stroking the hair that rested on her back. They stayed like that for a few minutes, until their breathing and heartbeats returned to normal. She lifted her head from his chest and placed a chaste kiss on his lips.

“I love you,” she said softly.

“I love you back.” He smiled.

Stepping back from the counter, he helped her down. Her legs were still a little wobbly. He found his boxers and she found her clothes, and they both dressed.

“Celebration breakfast next?” He asked, smirking over at her.

She giggled, “remind me to clean the counter before we do that.”

__

They decided on waffles, Damon’s pancake batter, but in a waffle iron. After picking up what was left of their clothes and cleaning the counter, they started to cook. Surprisingly, they were a very good team in the kitchen, she had good knife skills and he actually knew how to put the food together. So while he made his batter and the waffles, she cut up strawberries and made mimosas... Which she decided she was going to make very strong.

“You do know that its supposed to be equal parts OJ and Champaign, right?” He asked her.

“Who says we can’t make an exception for today, Mr. Bartender.” She asked, raising her brow at him.

He laughed, and went back to cooking… Truth be told they were having champaign and a splash of orange juice for breakfast, but who was he to ruin her fun?

When the waffles were done, he put some on plates and topped them with whipped cream and the strawberries Elena cut up. She grabbed the mimosas and the silverware and they headed to the table.

They sat together and ate their breakfast and talked, just like they had been doing every morning since she woke up from her sleep coma. The waffles were extraordinary, as usual, and so were the mimosas, he was gonna make a bartender out of her after all.

After breakfast, he insisted that he would clean up while she went and showered. She rolled her eyes and finally gave in. While she was in the bathroom preparing her shower, she heard her phone ring. She walked out of the bathroom and grabbed the phone from her bedside table.

Caroline

“Hey! You got in??” Caroline asked excitingly.

“Yes!” Elena replied.

“I’m so happy for you, Elena!! I’m so sorry it took me this long to get back to you... It turns out running a school for the supernatural is a lot of work.”

Elena laughed, “it’s okay, Care! How are things in Mystic Falls?”

“They’re good, but I’m exhausted, and so is Ric, but at least Jeremy is having a good time.”

“Yeah, congrats, Elena.” She heard her brother’s voice in the background.

Crap, she totally forgot to tell her brother she got accepted into medical school.

“Thanks, Jer.”

“Have you told, Bonnie?” Caroline asked.

“Not yet, I’m waiting for her to call me, it’s nighttime in Paris and I don’t wanna bother her.”

“Ah, I wish I was there to celebrate. We could throw a party!” Caroline exclaimed.

“Don’t worry, Damon’s doing you proud in the celebration department,” Elena told her. “We made waffles and mimosas for breakfast… well brunch.”

“What I would kill to be drunk right now,” she told her.

They talked for a little while longer, Caroline told her about how the twins were doing with their magic, and how Jeremy actually did enjoy teaching, and how Matt was running for mayor. When they finally did get off of the phone, Elena got into the shower.

After her shower, and getting ready for the day, she and Damon once again started brainstorming ideas for the bar. They not only thought about the design of the bar, but also names, and drink ideas.

“Instead of calling it a bloody Mary we could call it a bloody vampire..” He said, wiggling his brows at her. “Oooh, or we call it the Bunny Diet since it’s technically made with vegetables.”

Elena laughed, their life was so weird that people wouldn’t even to begin to understand names like that.

—  
Later that night, just after dinner, she received an email back from the medical school saying that classes would start the last week of September. That gave her just a little over two and a half weeks to prep and prepare. She was excited to embark on this new chapter of her life. Everything had been so good, her relationship with Damon was flourishing, her dreams were coming true, and honestly, she’d never been this happy in her life. She did miss Mystic Falls though, she missed her best friends, and the thought of having to make new ones was a little frighting, something she hadn’t had to do in a very long time.

Closing her computer, she stood up and walked from her office to the living room where she found Damon curled up on the couch reading a book. She quietly observed him for a moment. He was barefoot with his feet crossed on the coffee table in a pair of dark gray sweatpants with a thick, old book in his hand, and no shirt. Damon Salvatore rarely wore sweatpants, but when he did, he wore them well ( in her opinion, she could be a little bias.)

After enjoying the view of her gorgeous boyfriend, she walked over and sat down beside him.

“Hey, I was wondering where you ran off too.” He said, looking over at her.

“I went to see if got anything back from the school,” she replied, “classes start the last Monday of this month.”

“Did they send your schedule yet?”

“No, I’m assuming they will in the next few days.. Hopefully, I wanna know what I’m going into.” She chuckled, laying her head on his shoulder.

He kissed the side of her head and closed his book. “Sleepy?”

She nodded and he smiled, standing up and extending his arms out to her, pulling her up from the couch.

They walked up to their room and climbed into the big, comfy bed. They laid on their sides, facing each other. Elena scooted a little closer and rested her hand on his jaw, gently brushing the little hairs that were starting to poke out of his face. “I like this,” she whispered.

“Yeah?” He smiled, “I’ve never really been big on facial hair, but I got lazy this morning and didn’t wanna shave.”

It was just a five o’clock shadow, the hair was only visible a little bit. It was a little rough, but she didn’t seem to mind.

“Kinda makes you look older,” she smiled, and leaned over to kiss him, “this is getting a lot longer too.” She said, running her fingers through his hair.

He laughed, that cute little laugh he does when he actually finds something funny.

It wasn’t much longer until they both drifted off to sleep talking about nothing but randomness, and Damon’s hair.

—

They took the rest of the week and spent it getting everything ready for when Elena started school. She went and bought the supplies she needed, and by that time she had received her schedule. She would go four days a week: Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 8 am to 1 pm. From 8 to 10 she would have lectures, and from 11 to 1 she would have labs. Not as bad of a schedule as she thought it would be.

During the week she also made Damon go to the doctor and have a checkup. He fought her on this one, “I’m perfectly healthy and I don’t see the point in going in for a checkup.”

“Damon, you haven’t been to the doctor since you became a vampire, I just think it would be good for you to go. Make friends with the physician, because you’ll have to go again throughout our life.”

“Yeah, but I could just wait until I’m married to a super hot doctor, and then she can give me the physical.” He smirked.

“Damon,” she laughed, nudging his shoulder, “I’m serious!”

“I am too,” he smirked, doing his signature eye thing.

She looked up at him with those doe eyes and puckered her bottom lip.

“Oh, so we’re doing the puppy dog eyes now… I invented that.”

She didn’t say anything, just continued doing it.

“Okay, fine!” He exclaimed, “I’ll go get a check-up.”

Elena smiled in his defeat and kissed his cheek.

On top of school prep and doctors' appointments, the supplies Damon ordered for the bar had been shipped and he started working on it a little each day. He was a very handy man and could build and fix things, something he learned as a human long ago. Watching him work was fun for Elena too, she would watch his arms and muscles flex as he was lifting something, or when he how serious his face would get as he was concentrating.

He made a lot of progress from Tuesday to Sunday, he’d managed to finish all of the framework for the bar and started working on the wall he wanted behind the bar. He’d also started applying for his business licenses and permits.

On Sunday night, when’d he’d finished up the work he was doing downstairs, he walked inside the loft to Elena cooking. She had a cute little apron on and her hair was up messily in a clip. She had some kind of slow music on, but it wasn’t sad. The room smelled like bacon, and he watched her as she studied a cookbook, gently biting her lower lip in concentration. He smiled, and observed from a distance, being extra quiet.

The days were slowly getting colder so she decided she would attempt at making him soup. Potato soup, they both loved it and how hard could it be to make?

He watched as she stirred the onion and garlic she had in a pot, and then start to cut the potatoes into chunks.

“Well this is a surprise,” he said, making himself known. “Elena Gilbert is cooking…”

She looked up from her potatoes and was a little startled, but then she smiled. “I’m putting ingredients into a pot, hoping they taste good in an attempt to do something sweet for my boyfriend, who has been working hard all day.”

He smiled and walked over to her, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his chin on her shoulder, “it smells good in here, so that’s a start.”

“I mean bacon always smells good,” she giggled.

“What can I do to help you?” He asked, still wrapped around her.

“You can do nothing, I’m doing this for you, so go relax or shower, or whatever you wanna do, but you’re not helping.”

“Fine, I’ll go shower, but if you set the place on fire, yell really loud,” he said laughing.

“You ass.”

“You love this ass.” He smirked.

“You’re right,” she playfully rolled her eyes, “I do.”

Leaving her downstairs with the soup, he made his way into the bedroom. He took off his clothes and put them in the hamper they had in their closet, and walked into the bathroom. He looked at himself in the mirror for a moment, his body hadn’t changed since taking the cure. There were a few little scratches on his back and little love bites from Elena on his chest that were almost hardly noticeable. Taking one last look, he turned on the shower and stepped in.

Meanwhile, downstairs Elena finished putting the soup together. After adding flour to the pot with the onion and garlic to make a roux, she added her potatoes and broth. She stirred it frequently, making sure nothing stuck, and once the potatoes cooked, she added in cheese, sour cream, and the bacon that she had chopped up.

When it was done, she made them both a bowl. She topped it with a little more sour cream and chives and then took and sat them down on the table. She also opened a bottle of wine and lit some candles.

When he returned to the kitchen, he found her lighting one last candle and then taking her apron off.

“surprise,” she smiled.

He walked over and kissed her, “it looks amazing.”

“Let’s just hope it tastes as good as it looks,” she giggled.

They both took a seat at the table, and she watched as Damon took the first bite. She looked at him, waiting for him to say something.

“It’s delicious, lena.” He said truthfully, swallowing and going in for a second bite.

“You’re not just saying that so my feelings aren’t hurt, are you?”

He laughed, “If you would actually take a bite, you’d see how good it was.”

She smiled and took a bite, it was actually quite good. The potatoes were cooked, it was seasoned well, and she didn’t think she did a terrible job for her first time.

After finishing their dinner, Damon loaded the dishwasher while Elena put some laundry in. They cleaned up the loft a little bit, and after that, it was around 10:30 so they decided to go to bed.

He was already in his sleep clothes, so when they got to the bedroom she went into the closet to change, and he turned the bed down, climbing in and waiting for her.

When she returned, she was wearing an oversized t-shirt, which made him smile. She mostly wore sleep shorts and PJs, but every so often so would sleep in her underwear. She climbed into the bed beside of him and cuddled herself up against his side. He turned off the lamp and wrapped her up in his arms.

“I like being human again,” he finally said, his chin resting on the top of her head. “I used to miss being human so much, and then there was a cure and terrified the hell out of me… Even after agreeing to take it, as excited and happy as I was, and as sure as I was that I wanted it, it still scared me a little. But now, being here with you… starting a life, and doing normal human things like cooking and cuddling, and being normal… all the time I spent waiting was worth it.”

She looked up at him and smiled, “I’m glad you decided to take it too. As vampires, our relationship was really tested, and we always made it through, but I feel like now the toughest parts are over. We deserve to be happy, and I can’t imagine living my life with anyone else. I wanted you to take the cure so badly because I didn’t know what I would do if I had to let you go… I would have never been able to, we see how losing you the first time worked out. But I wanted you to make the choice for yourself, and when you said you’d take it I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy.”

He smiled and pulled her in for a lingering kiss.

Yeah, he loved being human again.


	6. Chapter 6

The following two weeks after Elena got her acceptance letter flew by, one moment they had all the time in the world, and the next she was waking up for her first day. Damon heard her phone alarm ring, and within seconds she turned it off and sighed. He popped one eye open and looked at her, she was laying on her back with her arms covering her face.

“You okay?” He asked, still a little groggy from his sleep.

“Yeah,” she took a deep breath, “I’m just a little nervous.”

He took her hand and pulled her over onto his chest and started to stroke her hair, “today is gonna be great, and you’re going to be excellent.” He whispered, kissing her forehead. 

They laid like that for a few more moments before she stirred and sat up. She leaned down and kissed him softly on the lips and then rolled over and out of bed. She took a long, hot shower, letting the water and steam relax her. After showering, she did her skin routine, brushed her hair, and got dressed. She wore a pair of jeans and a black blouse. She quickly brushed her teeth and styled her hair, leaving it down and curled, and put on a little bit of natural makeup.

When she came out of the bathroom, Damon was nowhere to be found. She put her dirty clothes in the laundry bin in their closet and slid her boots on. She looked at herself one last time in the mirror and smiled. 

When she walked downstairs, she saw Damon in the kitchen and was hit with the smell of eggs. When she got closer, she noticed that he was making omelets. She walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around his torso and laid her head in the center of his back, listening to each breath he took. 

With his free hand, he rubbed the arm she had around him, “have a good shower?”

“Yes, I feel much better.” She smiled.

They sat as the island and had breakfast together, and once they were finished eating it was around 7:30 AM. Damon helped Elena pack her bag and made sure she had everything she needed before walking her downstairs and putting her safely inside her SUV. Jeremy had been nice enough to send her car back since she was starting school. 

“Have a good day, I love you,” Damon told her, leaning his head into her window so that he could kiss her one last time. 

“I love you too.” She smiled. 

He watched her as she pulled out of the parking lot and went back inside. 

It only took her about 15 minutes to get to the medical center, so when she arrived, she grabbed her bag and headed into the large building. The halls and classrooms were a lot like Whitmore, and there were three levels. Her classroom was on the second floor, room 333, Gross Anatomy. When she walked in, the room was only half filled up. It looked like it seated about 30 people, so it was intimate. On the desks were name cards that went in alphabetical order, when she found hers it was towards the middle of the room next to a girl with black hair. 

She walked to her seat and sat down, putting her bag in front of her.

“Lauren, nice to meet you.” The girl next to her said smiling. 

“Oh, hey, Elena, nice to meet you,” she smiled. 

“Are you as nervous as I am?”

Elena giggled, “I’m a little nervous, but now that I’m here it’s getting better.”

Just as Lauren went to reply, someone else sat down beside Elena. It was a man dressed in khakis and a white button-up shirt, and she was obviously attracted to this guy because he stopped her dead in her tracks. 

He smiled at them, “Ben.” 

“I’m Lauren, and this is Elena.” 

“Nice to meet you both," he replied.

Elena chatted with the two of them for a few more moments and then the lady who was teaching the lecture walked in. She sat her bag down on her desk and walked over to the marker board. 

“Good morning, everyone and welcome to your first day of medical school.” She said, standing before the class. “The next three years are going to push you to your limits, it’s going to be hard and you’re going to be tired. The people in this room is your class, and in this class, half of you will not make it. The first year is the hardest and will make or break you. You’ll leave either because it’s too hard, or because you realize that this isn’t for you. But for the half of you that do make it, it will be a challenge, but it will be worth it.” She told them. The room was so silent you could almost hear the person next to you breathing. “After today is over, you guys can sit where you please, and you guys can call me Dr. Jess, let’s get started.” She smiled and turned around to the board. 

The first class was easy for Elena, she already knew a lot about the human body, and had studied this while she was still volunteering at Whitmore. She took down notes and listened as the lecturer went through slides on the computer. The class lasted an hour, and then she went to the next class which was Histology.

The Histology class was a lot like Gross Anatomy, but this was the cells of the human body. Lauren and Ben were also in this class with her, they all three decided to sit together again. Elena liked them, Lauren reminded her a lot of Aunt Jenna, she just had that personality, and Ben was quiet and shy. 

In this class, another girl sat down beside them. She sat down to the right of Ben. She had dirty blonde hair and wore glasses.

“Hi…” the girl smiled, “I’m Jules, short for Julie. Cool if I sit here?”

“Totally cool,” Ben smiled, “I’m Ben, this is Elena, and that’s Lindsey.” 

This lecture went a lot like the last, the teacher came in and introduced himself, and then quickly got into talking about cells. After the class was over, they all decided to go have lunch together. They had an hour so they went to a little restaurant beside the medical center, and ordered burgers and fries. 

“So Elena, you have a bit of an accent, where are you from?” Jules asked.

Elena giggled, “I’m from a little town in Virginia, you probably wouldn’t know it.”

“Oh wow, you moved far from home…” Lauren said, “what made you choose Portland?”

“Well, I considered Trebek, but it’s not really my boyfriend’s taste, so we chose here.”

“OOh, a boyfriend, do tell us about him.”

Elena laughed, taking a bite from her fry, “his name is Damon, he owns a bar, which he’s in the process of opening, and we’ve been together 7 years.”

“Woah, that’s a long time,” Jules said, “that would’ve made you like, 18? Wow.”

“Yeah, it was a little while after I turned 18, but I’ve known him since right before my 17th birthday.”

“Picture?” Lauren asked. 

Elena grabbed her phone and found a picture of them. It was the one that she used to keep in her dorm room, the one where she was kissing his cheek and he had the sexy five o’clock shadow going on.

“Okay. Hot. Look at those gorgeous eyes.”

“Thanks,” Elena laughed, “he’s amazing. I wouldn’t be here without him.” 

“We should all get together sometime, get to know each other since you’re new to town,” Ben told her.

“That would totally be fun!” Elena replied. 

They spent the rest of their lunch getting to know each other. Ben and Lauren had both grown up in Portland, and Jules had moved here with her family over ten years ago. After lunch, Elena said goodbye to her new friends and made her way to the office of the medical center. 

Since it was the first day, there would be no labs, and she only had the two classes. As a student at the center, they gave her a white coat with the OMS logo and a student badge with her photo and name on it. 

Once she was done, it was around 12:30. She texted Damon, 

_ “hey, got out early! I’m heading home.” _

He texted back almost immediately,  _ “early?? I’m shocked. I’m downtown signing some papers for permits, so you may beat me back. Be safe, I love you.” _

_ “I love you too!! I’ll be safe.” _

She put her phone away and turned on the radio, and drove back to the loft. It took a little longer this time, traffic had picked up a bit, but she still made it back in around twenty minutes. 

When she walked into the loft she kicked off her shoes and walked upstairs into the main room. She went to her study room down the hall to set her things down and saw the most beautiful bouquet of roses sitting on the desk. She smiled softly and put her bag down. The card read,

_ Elena, I hope your first day of medical school was amazing and everything you thought it would be. I’ve missed you very much in the short time you’ve been gone :) the loft is boring without you around. I love you, xoxo -Damon _

She smiled and sat the card down on the table and picked up the roses to smell them. They smelled as beautiful as they looked. She picked out a place for them on the table near the window so they could have sunlight. 

As she was turning around to walk out of the room, a voice startled her, “Like them?” Damon asked, propped up against the doorway. 

“Damon,” she grabbed her chest, “you scared me,” she laughed. “How did you not make any noise?” 

“I’m smooth like that,” he smirked. 

She laughed and rolled her eyes, “I do like them, they’re beautiful, thank you.” 

He walked from the doorway over to her, “you’re welcome,” he replied. He bent his head down and placed a lingering kiss on her lips. “How was your day?” 

“My day was good,” she told him, “made some friends, had some lectures, ate some burgers, got a cool doctor's jacket.” 

“I can’t wait to hear all about it.” 

“I wanna hear about your day!” She told him.

Damon laughed, “my day was boring. I missed you a little, showered, missed you some more, got my permits for the bar… Oh got us a gym membership.”

“Gym membership?” She raised her brow. 

“Well, now that we're human, the only way we're gonna stay strong is to take care of ourselves… and I know you like to train," he smiled. 

They walked back into the living room and plopped down on the couch, she told him all about the friends she had made, and what they were like. She told him how they wanted to get together sometime and he agreed that it could be fun. She told him about her classes, and professors too. 

The next day, Elena didn’t have classes, so she and Damon worked on the bar. The progress was coming along quickly, the bar was completely built and so was the wall behind the bar. There wasn’t much more to do other than to order furniture, pick a name, and hire someone. Damon was extremely picky, he didn’t like or trust many people. 

“Maybe put a help wanted sign on the front door and interview people.” She told him, “but with requirements.”

“We could do that... I need someone dependable… Someone who’s not an idiot, that’s actually old enough to drink and know what they’re talking about.”

“Someone’s who’s friend material.” Elena told him, “as much as I hate to say it, you need a Ric replacement.”

He nodded, “too bad Ric doesn’t have a doppelgänger anywhere.”

Elena laughed, “No more doppelgängers.”

“That’s probably a good call,” he laughed, “but we have plenty of time to figure it out... I don’t wanna open until after the new year… I just wanna spend the holiday’s with my girl.” 

Elena smiled and kissed him, “our first normal, human holiday’s together…”

“The only thing that could make it better than this is if Stef could enjoy it too.”

She put her hand on his cheek and stroked it, “we’ll do something nice to honor him, I know your favorite holiday together was Christmas.”

Damon smiled, “yeah, we loved it. But we haven’t celebrated it in over 100 years, so you'll have to show me how it's done.” 

“We’ll make traditions together, a little bit of both our families.”

After sitting on the floor in the middle of the bar for hours talking, they decided to get ready and go out for dinner. They didn’t have a specific place they wanted to try, so when they got ready they drove around until something caught their eye. 

They found a nice little food truck lot, that had picnic tables and a live band and decided to stop. They went with the food truck that served tacos and decided to split the sample platter. It came with your classic tacos, fish tacos, and even a vegan taco. 

After they ate, they decided to go back home, it was getting late and Elena had classes the next morning. By the time they got back home, it was around 7:30. They both showered and headed to bed. 

Elena’s second day went a lot different than her first, on Wednesday’s her classes were pathology and biochemistry, and unlike the first day, she had her first round of labs. The lab was for pathology, and to be honest, it was gross, but thankfully it didn’t both her, when she said she’d seen worse, she wasn’t lying. Being a vampire probably helped her in that department, blood and human body parts didn’t even phase her anymore. For the lab, they had to pair up and examine tissue from a human heart, and then do a paper on the difference between tissue from a problematic heart and a healthy one. 

The rest of her week went about the same, rotating classes and labs, having lunch with a group of people who actually turned out to be very cool, and then coming home to her loving, supportive boyfriend who helped her in any way he could.

By the time Friday night rolled around, Elena was relieved to have the next couple of days off. She planned on spending the whole weekend with Damon. Standing up from the desk in her study room, she stretched. She’d been sitting in there for hours doing a weekend's worth of homework so she wouldn’t have to do anything until Monday. 

“Finally,” she whispered to herself. She put away all of her books, notes, and pens and tidied up the room before turning the light out and walking upstairs. She’d finished around 11 that night, and Damon had already gone to bed. She tiptoed into the bedroom, trying not to wake him, and went to their closet. She quickly changed out of her day clothes and put on some pjs. She laid down in the spot next to him and spooned him. 

“I was wondering when you would be up,” he said sleepily. 

“I’m sorry, I know it took forever… I just wanted it all to be done so we would have Saturday and Sunday.” 

He carefully rolled over so he could look at her, “Elena, you don’t have to apologize for doing homework, I know what I signed up for,” he whispered, gently stroking her cheek.

“I know, I just want to make as much time for you as I can.”

“We have forever, Lena. School will settle down and become more routine soon enough. You’ll have long days and nights, and once you start your residency I’ll probably go hours on top of hours without seeing you, but that’s okay too. Be more epic when I do finally get you to myself,” he smirked. 

He knew exactly what he signed up for marrying a doctor, and he was okay with that. He knew she was going to be busy a lot, especially for the next few years of their lives. But he wanted it for her, he wanted her to thrive and be successful. He’d had multiple lifetimes, and she hadn’t. He wanted her to have the life she deserved, and that meant following her dreams.

She smiled, and leaned her head over to kiss him, “I love you, Damon Salvatore.”

“I love you more, Elena Gilbert,” he smiled back. 

—

The next morning, Damon woke up first, he grabbed his phone and looked at the time: 7:42 AM. He looked down at Elena, she was sleeping so peacefully. Her hair was messy, and she didn’t have any makeup on. This woman was absolutely beautiful. He placed a light kiss on her nose, and carefully got out of bed, covering Elena back up, letting her sleep in. He grabbed the journal and a pen out of his nightstand drawer, and quietly exited the room. He went down to the kitchen and made himself a cup of hot tea, and walked back upstairs to the banister where they had put chairs and a table for when they wanted to watch the sunrise. The sun was already up, but it made for a hell of a view. 

Damon opened the journal and swiped his fingers over the crisp, blank paper. Elena had decided to buy him one and told him that he didn’t have to write every day, just when he needed to get somethings off his chest. Today was one of those days,

_ ‘ Dear Stefan, _

_ Hello brother…Where ever you are I hope you are doing well. It’s been almost five months since you left me, and I still miss you just as much today as I did the day it happened. I think it would be easier if I knew I would see you again, but I doubt it’ll happen. The things I’ve done in my life, I don’t know if I’ll ever find peace. I’m sure Katherine has a special seat reserved for me in hell, right beside her. Anyways, things here are good, Elena and I are doing great. She misses you almost just as much as I do. She started med school this week and has already been working her ass off, and the bar is coming along too. We still haven’t decided on a name yet, but we have plenty of time. We’re gonna wait to open so we can enjoy the holidays without any added stress of a new business. I’m thinking we’ll open in January… Wish you could be here for that, we’d make a hell of a team. Besides bars and med school, Portland is great. The city is just big enough without being too big, we really like it here… It would’ve been a great place to live as a vampire, I don’t know why we didn’t do it sooner. :) Anyways, enough about me and on to the other people in our lives. I’ll start with your wife…Blondie is doing well. She and Ric turned the house back into a boarding house, and the twins are safely learning how to control their magic. She sends pictures almost every day, they’re growing like little weeds, and are cute as ever… They make me excited for the day Elena and I have a baby. Bonnie has almost made her way completely through Europe and hopes to be home before Christmas… Oh and get this, Matt Donovan is running for Mayor and Jeremy Gilbert is a teacher at the boarding house. Can you believe that? They can barely spell the word cat. In all seriousness, brother, you are missed. Hope you and Lexi are doing something epic wherever you are.  _

_ \- with love, Damon. _

He closed the journal and set it down on the table beside him, and replaced it with his cup of tea. He looked at the big window… the sky was still a little pinkish-orange from the sunrise and the leaves were red and yellow. Fall had always been one of his favorite seasons as a boy, he liked cold days when you could snuggle up by the fireplace, especially with his mother... before she became a bloodthirsty, ripper bitch. 

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the bedroom door opening and Elena walking down the hallway. 

“Good morning,” Damon smiled.

She sleepily smiled back at him, making way over and sitting in his lap. “Good morning.”

He sat his cup back down on the table beside him and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her gently on the lips. “You were supposed to be sleeping in.”

“The bed got cold,” she replied, laying her head on his chest. “I’m getting in this really bad habit where I don’t want to sleep without you.”

He smiled, and pulled her closer. “want me to come and lay back down with you?”

“Maybe…” she whispered, “but not to sleep.” 

He smirked and stood up with her still in his arms and carried her to the bedroom. He never could get enough of the girl who was Elena Gilbert. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, I hope you're enjoying the story so far! Thank you for all of the kudos, and please feel free to leave suggestions and give feedback!
> 
> Also, since this chapter was about Elena starting med school, I just wanted to say that I actually have no idea what med school is like, so I'm just going based off of what I've read and the movie Flatliners lol, so if anything is incorrect, I'm sorry! :)


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to do all of the holidays in one chapter, but I got carried away! I hope you enjoy! ALSO, smut warning! ;)

October:

Through the month of October, they established a good routine. Elena went to classes, Damon worked on the bar, three times a week they would go train together at the gym, and every night they would have dinner together and spend at least one hour doing something they both enjoyed. Damon had been right, Elena settled into school pretty quickly. The homework load was manageable and if she studied for at least an hour a day she didn’t fall behind.

They’d gotten to the middle of October and Portland was stunning, the trees were shades of orange and red, and the days had been getting shorter and colder. They both really enjoyed the cold, rainy weather. They would snuggle in a blanket and watch movies, or go out and try out a new coffee place.

Elena had insisted they decorate the loft for Halloween. Besides Christmas, it was her favorite holiday. Since she was a kid she loved dressing up and trick-or-treating. So on the Saturday of the third week of October, she drug Damon to the nearest pumpkin patch.

They pulled up at a huge farm a little ways outside of the city, with rows and rows of orange pumpkins.

“I’m seeing a lot of kids, are you sure adults come to pumpkin patches for themselves?” Damon asked, looking over at her.

“Yes,” she giggled, “and to be fair, we aren’t that old… Well, you are, but you pass for a young man.”

Damon laughed, and opened his car door, walking around to the other side and opening hers. They walked through the gate and quickly began looking at pumpkins. The size ranged from little bitty to bigger than Elena.

“These are nice,” Damon told her, looking at the medium-sized ones.

“Good in color, big enough to carve, I think we have winners,” she smiled.

After picking their pumpkins, they walked around a little more. The owners of the pumpkin patch had a lot of other festivities, like apple bobbing, a haunted house for the kids, and a corn maze. After looking around, they paid for their pumpkins and headed back to the loft.  
When they got back, they put old newspapers all over the kitchen table and started to carve their pumpkins.

“So how did you celebrate Halloween as a kid?” Elena asked, cutting a hole in the top of her pumpkin.

“Well, when I was a kid, Halloween was completely different… We didn’t dress up and trick or treat… Basically, Halloween was the day that the “veil” between our world and the spirit world was the thinnest. So we would take jack-o-lanterns to protect our homes against evil spirits,” he told her, and then smirked, “and vampires. It wasn’t until in the late 1800s that people started celebrating it as the holiday it is today.”

“I didn’t know that I always assumed it was always like this… costumes, pumpkins, candy.”

“Nope, but fun fact, Mama Salvatore use to take these,” he said, holding up a hand full of pumpkin seeds, “and make the tastiest cinnamon sugar snacks. Stefan and I could eat all of them by ourselves.”

She smiled at him, “I’ve never eaten pumpkin seeds.”

“What? How have you never had pumpkin seeds?” He asked, standing up, and walked over to the cabinet, grabbing another bowl. “We’re gonna make some.”

Getting all of the guts out of their pumpkins, they separated the seeds from the goopy stuff and then started to actually carve them. They decided to not tell the other what they were carving and then they would show each other when they were finished.

“So your turn,” Damon said, “what was Halloween like for you and baby Gilbert.”

Elena smiled, “It was tradition to go the pumpkin patch a week before Halloween and pick out our pumpkins, and we would carve them… and our parents always let us choose our costumes, no matter how ridiculous they were. There was this one year I went as a puppy, and I had weird face paint all over me because I insisted that I painted my own face, because I was a big girl. So somewhere floating in the universe is a photo of me with a dog onesie and a big black circle on my left eye.” They both laughed, “and then we would go get candy on Halloween, and Mystic Falls was safe so Bonnie, Care, Jer, Matt, and I would all go together.”

He smiled, listening to her talk, how happy she sounded talking about her childhood. They spent the next hour carving out their pumpkins and when they were done, they had a big reveal.

“Okay, on three,” Damon said, “1…2…3…”

They both turned their pumpkins around so the other could see. Elena had done your classic Halloween pumpkin, but with heart eyes instead of triangles, and Damon did a vampire pumpkin with triangle eyes and fangs in the smile.

Elena laughed, “You did a vampire, I love it!!”

Damon smiled, “Bringing out my inner self, and looks like you are too with those cute little heart eyes.”

They took their pumpkins over to the window in the dining room and put a lit candle inside of them.

“This was fun,” Damon smiled, “I really enjoyed it.”

She looked up and kissed him, “Me too.”

The next day they made the toasted pumpkin seeds, which was: butter, brown sugar, a pinch of salt, and cinnamon. Elena actually ended up loving them, they were kind of nutty, and just like Damon said he and Stefan used to do, they ended up eating all of them. They spent the day watching movies in bed, mostly Halloween movies that weren’t scary like The Adam’s Family, Hocus Pocus, and Casper.

—

The next day, as Elena was walking to her car to leave the medical center, she heard a voice yell behind her, “Elena, wait up!”

“Hey,” Elena smiled, it was Ben who was holding a piece of paper in his hand.

“I wanted to give you this,” he said, handing her the paper, “it’s an invite to a Halloween party that my roommates and I are throwing… Figured maybe you and your boyfriend might like to come.”

“Thanks, we’ll be there!” Elena told him.

They said their goodbyes and Elena drove home to the loft. When she arrived, Damon was in the kitchen cooking. It was yet again another cold and wet day, so he decided to make chili.

“Hey,” he smiled, “how was your day?”

She sat her bag down on the chair and walked over to him, “it was Monday, so it was exhausting.” She told him, leaning in for a quick kiss.

“How about you?”

“Boring,” he playfully rolled his eyes, “as usual.”

“You need a friend,” she laughed, “and good thing for you, we got invited to a Halloween party this weekend and I said we would be there.”

He looked at her and raised his eyebrow, doing the eye thing, “you expect me, a 178 year old ex-vampire to befriend a bunch of medical students?”

“Damon,” she laughed again, “you at least have to try. You’re a people person, plus you’re supposed to be the same age as all of us.”

“Fine, I’ll try to make friends with all the young people.”

“Thank you,” she smiled and kissed him once again. “Oh and we get to dress up!”

—

The next day, since it was Tuesday and Elena didn’t have class, she and Damon went to a Halloween store and picked their costumes out. He can’t recall the name of the business, but when they walked in there was smoke everywhere and decorations screaming.

“They have this all wrong,” he said, looking at the vampire costumes, “never have I ever worn a cape like this.”

She giggled, “So I take it sexy vampires are a no?”

“Been there, done that…” He told her, “now this, this is something you’d look good in,” he said holding a playboy bunny costume.

“Absolutely not… out in public at least.”

He laughed, and they walked over to the couples section of the costumes. There were a lot of lame ones: peanut butter, and jelly, salt, and pepper, plugins, and outlets… They almost gave up until Damon spotted a little package with a Gomez Adam’s mustache in it.

“Now this could work,” he smiled, holding up the package. “We could be Gomez and Morticia Adams.”

“You in a suit, I like that idea.”

After deciding on that, they also decided that they would dress in their own clothing instead of the thin, cheaply made costumes they had to offer at the store. The did pick up a fake hand for Damon to keep on his shoulder though.

—  
When Halloween rolled around on the Saturday of that week, they began getting ready around 5pm, the party started at 7. Damon wore a black suit with a white button-up shirt, and a deep burgundy, velvet bow tie. He also added the hand to his left shoulder. Elena wore a long black dress with flowy sleeves that complimented her cleavage. She did dark makeup with red lipstick and straightened her hair, putting some black, temporary hairspray in it.

“You look… stunning,” Damon said, staring at her lustfully.

“Back at you,” she smiled, straightening his bowtie.

They left the loft around 6:30 and drove Elena’s SUV to the party, which was about 20 minutes from them at a huge house that Ben lived at with his roommates. When they arrived, they parked the car at the end of the driveway and got out.

There were already tons of people there, making their way into the house. Once they were inside, Elena felt a hand grab her arm. It was Jules, dressed as a murdered little red riding hood.

“Elena, you finally made it,” she said excitedly, “And it’s very nice to FINALLY meet you, Damon.”

“Likewise,” he smiled.

“Come on, Lauren is over here,” Jules said, dragging them both over by the booze table.

“Elena, you guys look amazing,” Lauren smiled and hugged her. She was dressed as an angel.

“Hey, thank you! So do you!” she replied, “This is Damon, Damon this is Lauren.”

“Nice to meet you,” Damon yelled over the loud music.

He could hardly make out their faces, the house was completely dark except for strobe lights and colored lightbulbs. There were spooky decorations all around and a giant table full of different booze.

“You guys want a drink?” Lauren asked, “They’ve got jungle juice.”

What in the hell was jungle juice? He thought.

“Sure,” Damon and Elena replied.

Lauren handed them both red solo cups full of a blue liquid and tons of fruit. When Damon tried it, it wasn’t half bad, there were a lot of different alcohols in it, but he didn’t mind the drink.

“Hope everyone is enjoying the party…” Ben smiled, throwing his arms around Lauren and Jules.

“It’s great!” Jules told him.

“Elena, so happy you could make it.” He smirked, “you look amazing.”

Elena smiled, “Thanks Ben, so do you!” He was dressed as a cowboy. “This is Damon.”

Ben reached out his hand out and shook Damon’s, “Nice to meet you, man. You've got one hell of a girl right here.”

 _He most definitely had a thing for his girl too… Noted_. Damon thought.

"She's incredible," he replied.

"All right, well I'm gonna check on everyone else, enjoy the party and I'll meet back up with you guys in a few," Ben told them.

Damon smiled and drank what was left of his juice, “let’s dance.” He told Elena, sitting his cup down on the table.

Elena quickly downed the rest of her drink too and took his hand, leading them out to the dance floor. Lauren and Jules followed.

They danced a lot through the night, taking breaks after every few songs and doing shots of whatever was closest to them. It was a lot like the frat party they went to at Whitmore. There were tons of people and dancing bodies everywhere. Everyone, including Damon, was drunk.

“More shots,” Elena yelled, handing a shot of tequila to Damon. They both licked the salt off their hands, took the shot, and instantly bit the lime.

Damon laughed, putting the shot glass back on the table, “you know this is a lot more fun than I thought it would be. I had my doubts.”

Elena laughed, she could tell he was most definitely drunk… Hell, she was drunk. Their human tolerance was a joke, and they both had a lot to drink… like A LOT. She made the decision that the drink they just took would be her last, someone had to get them home and he was having too much fun for her to ask him to stop.

“I’m glad you’re having as much fun as me.”

Damon smiled and grabbed her by the waist, pulling her out onto the dance floor again. After a few more songs, Ben cut in. “Mind if I steal your girl for a dance?”

 _Yes, I absolutely do mind, prick._ “Go ahead, I’m gonna grab another drink.”

He watched as they danced, observing. He would love to be a vampire right now just so he could compel this asshole away. Far away, like Antarctica. He knew he shouldn’t be jealous, Elena could take care of herself, but he really didn’t like this guy. The moment he saw Ben’s hands land on her hips, he came back over.

“Here’s your drink, baby.” He smirked, both at Elena and then at Ben. “I’m stealing my girl back, sorry brother.”

Ben smiled and then danced his way over to another girl.

“You know he’s so into you, right?” Damon asked her, sipping his drink.

Elena laughed, “What, no!”

“Who could blame him, you’re beautiful and you have this amazing personality.” He told her, “He’s so into you.”

“Well, that’s too bad for him, because I’m into someone else.” She smirked.

“Oh?”

“Yeah, just some guy I met awhile ago. Super, super sexy… Especially in a suit.” She bit her lip.

“Damn, he's a very lucky guy.” Damon smiled, doing the eye thing.

She pulled him close and kissed him, like really kissed him. He tasted sweet, and like so many different boozes and her body craved more, craved him.

“Here, have my drink,” she told him.

“You’re done?”

“Someone has to drive us home,” she giggled, “You’re having a good time, drink.”

“Sure?”

“Positive.” She replied, kissing him once more.

They stayed for around another hour and a half, by that time it was closer to midnight. Thankfully, with the help of snacks and water, Elena had sobered up and could drive them home.

“It was nice to meet you, Damon,” Jules said, just as drunk as he was.

“You too,” he smiled.

“You gonna get home okay?” Elena asked her.

“I’m taking her,” Lauren said, “I sobered up awhile ago too.”

They said their goodbyes and Elena took the keys from Damon’s jacket pocket. As they were walking out the door, they both heard another familiar voice behind them and Damon rolled his eyes.

“Leaving without saying goodbye?” Ben asked.

 _If I could properly stand up and the love of my life wouldn’t be mad at me for a whole week, I would kick your ass._ Damon thought.

“Sorry, I couldn’t find you.” Elena smiled, “Great party, thanks for inviting us! We had a great time.”

“Thanks, and you are ALWAYS welcome in my house.” He smirked, pulling her hand up for a kiss.

_Yep, gonna come back and kick his ass._

That’s when Elena noticed that Damon may have been right, she awkwardly smiled at him, “Goodnight, Ben.”

She put her arm around Damon and they walked out the door. Damon was staggering, but with the help of Elena holding him up, they safely made it to the car. She opened his door for him and got him inside before walking over to the driver's side. Damon leaned over and opened her door, she climbed inside and started the car.

“I love you, lena.”

She giggled, “I love you too, Damon.”

“When I’m a little more sober I’m gonna come back and kick his ass.”

“Okay, so you may have been right about the whole into me thing, but you can not come back and kick his ass.” She laughed.

“Better yet, I’ll call BonBon and have her do some witchy woo on him… Ooh or just have Blondy come and bite him.”

Elena laughed, jealous Damon was…hot.

By the time she drove them home, Damon was still drunk but a little more sober. They got out of the car and walked in and up to the loft. They took their shoes off and walked into the kitchen.

“Drink?” Elena asked, opening the refrigerator and grabbing a bottle of water.

“Please,” he replied, sitting down at the island.

She grabbed a second bottle and walked over to him. She opened the bottle of water for him, and then hers. He took a drink of the cold water and it was heavenly, he didn’t realize how thirsty he was until he drank the whole bottle. When he was done he propped his head up on his elbow and watched her.

He could see why men were interested, she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen, and the person she was, the love and compassion she had was only a cherry on top. He didn’t know what he ever did in his life to deserve her, but he would spend the rest of his life, however long that would be, thanking the universe.

She smiled down at him and kissed his cheek, “Ready for bed?”

“Not exactly,” he smirked, running his fingers through her hair before pushing it behind her ear. She hadn’t worn her hair straight like this in awhile.

She smirked back at him and grabbed his hand, pulling him off the stool and leading them up the stairs to their bedroom.

The moment the door closed his lips were on hers, his tongue tracing her bottom lip until she opened her mouth to him. She moaned. This had been what she wanted all night. She pushed the suit jacket off of his shoulders and threw it on the ottoman at the end of their bed. She quickly undid the tie and ripped the buttons open on his shirt.

He laughed, “totally didn’t think you could still do that.”

She smiled smugly and pushed him back onto the bed. He kicked off his shoes while she pulled her dress up and over her head and threw it on the floor along with her heels. She was wearing a red, matching lingerie set and it took his breath away.

She climbed on top of him, kissing him again. She could feel how hard he was against his pants, and she ground her hips into his, earning her somewhere between a moan and a whimper.

His hands found her hips and ran his finger along the line of her panties before quickly, and surprisingly (to her), flipping them over so he was on top of her. He repositioned them to the center of the bed before placing a quick kiss on her lips and then kissing his way down her neck. He used his teeth to nip at the skin, causing her to moan.

“Mine,” he whispered seductively, sucking and nipping her earlobe.

The thoughts of a jealous, and possessive over her when it came to other men, Damon instantly made her even wetter.

“Yours…” She whispered.

He expertly unhooked her bra before taking one of her nipples into his mouth, she moaned and her hips bucked up against his.

“Damon,” she whined, and he smiled against her.

After paying the other nipple the same attention, he worked his way down her belly and between her legs. He kissed the inside of her thighs, leaving little red marks on them. He knew she was becoming impatient, she was squirming beneath him. He smiled, and hooked his fingers around her panties, and pulled them down her silky, smooth legs. She was soaked, and he couldn't help but smirk. He took his finger and ran it over her labia and quickly found her clit. Her hips bucked again against his hand as he slowly worked the nub of nerves. Just as she got close to coming, he stopped.

“Ohhh my god. Damon.”

He smirked once again, and position himself between her legs. He lifted her legs over both sides of his shoulders and ran his tongue up and over her clit. As his mouth slowly devoured her, he could feel her slowly getting worked up again. He made sure to kiss every single inch of her, sliding in his fingers as his tongue worked its magic.

Once again, when he felt her start to tremble, just before she could come, he stopped again.

“Damon…” She groaned.

He sat up on the bed and quickly removed his pants, now that she knew what he was doing, she was less mad about not coming. She could see how hard and turned on he was, which made her want him even more. As he found his way back in-between her legs, she started to stroke him. He closed his eyes and moaned.

“Lena…” He whispered, and let his cock completely fill her up.

They both moaned, and he was still for a moment, letting them both adjust.

“So good,” she moaned, and he slowly started to move.

He pulled her in for a kiss as he continued to thrust into her. He went slow, deliciously slow, working them both up for a perfect orgasm. Her legs wrapped around his waist, and her fingernails found his back. The closer they both got, the more he picked up his pace.

He felt Elena clamp around him and looked down at her, and she was looking at him. He kissed her one more time, and they came together. He continued to thrust as they both came down from their highs, and when they were finished he rolled to the side of her.

“Incredible,” she told him.

“Always,” he whispered back, kissing her forehead.

They laid like that for a few more minutes, just holding each other and listening to the others breathing. Sometimes he missed having vamp hearing, he missed the magnified sound of her heartbeat.

“When I close my eyes, the whole room moves,” he finally said.

She laughed, “You know for a second I totally forgot you were drunk.”

He laughed and cuddled up closer to her. She always assumed he would be a cuddlier, not that she thought about it (she did) and he was. She played with his hair until he fell asleep and then she slowly fell asleep after him.

—

The next morning Damon woke up with a killer headache… The kind he hadn’t felt in over 150 years. A hangover. He yawned and reached for Elena, but she wasn’t there. He poked one eye open and looked around the room. She wasn’t there and she wasn’t in the bathroom because the light was off. As a matter of fact, all of the lights were still off and the blinds and curtains were closed. He looked over to his nightstand in hopes of finding his phone but instead, he found a glass of cold water and two aspirin. He smiled and grabbed them. Once he took them, he quickly finished off the glass of water before getting out of bed.

He felt kind of queasy, his stomach was empty and he was starving, but he also felt disgusting. He made his way out of the bedroom and downstairs to find Elena making breakfast.

“Good morning,” he said in a sleepy, raspy voice.

“Hey, I was gonna bring you breakfast in bed,” she said softly. “Made you some toast and tea.”

He smiled, it was a piece of toast with almond butter and bananas.

“Thanks,” he replied and kissed her cheek.

She insisted they go back to the bedroom, that the sun sucks on a hangover and she was right, it was bright and somehow made him feel sicker. He felt like a vampire again. They walked back upstairs and into the bedroom and had breakfast.

“Have fun last night?” She asked, also eating her toast.

“I was pleasantly surprised. I had a good time. Minus the whole having my girl get hit on right in front of me thing.” He laughed.

“You know, I didn’t think he was into me… He’s always been so nice.”

He raised his eyebrow at her, “honey have you met you? It’s damn near impossible to not have some kind of crush on you.”

She rolled her eyes, “I’m glad you had fun.”

He waited for a moment before he replied, “today is Stefan’s birthday.”

“I know..."

“It all feels weird. It’s weird that it’s already November, and it’s weird that today’s his birthday but he’s not here.”

“I know,” she whispered again. She could see how sad he got, “Do you wanna do something for him?”

“We’ll be in Mystic Falls for Friendsgiving, we can do something then.” He smiled.

She could see the sadness in his eyes and wished there was something she could do to take that pain away. No matter how much she missed Stefan, or how sad she was that he was gone, it was nothing compared to what he felt. It was his brother, and when she lost her brother it killed her, and she knew there was nothing that she could do for him other than being here.

They sat and finished their toast and talked. When they were done Elena took their dishes downstairs and Damon got the shower ready for them. After taking a hot shower together, they spent the rest of their Sunday in bed. They watched movies and talked about Stefan. He told Elena stories about when they were kids, and they called Caroline to check up on her.  
As sad as he was about it, it helped him to talk, and when they visited Mystic Falls they would do something nice in his memory, but for now, he would celebrate his brother through the memory of him.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry for such a long wait! I've rewritten this chapter a few times, and I'm still not sure how I feel about it. Anyways, I hope you enjoy! :)

November turned out to be the most long and exhausting month for Damon and Elena. After going back to school after Halloween, Elena’s workload skyrocketed. The semester would be ending the second week of December so she had exams and test on top of labs, essays, and study prep. She found herself spending more time alone than with anyone else. They still had their routine of dinners together, training, and the weekends, but it didn’t seem like enough. He kept telling her it was okay and that he understood, but she still felt sad. Damon was just as busy though, they set a date to open the bar, January 19th, and between making a menu and trying to find someone dependable that he liked to help him work the bar, he was almost just as busy as her. 

The furniture had come in for the bar, and he’d been setting it up, he placed each and every piece himself, making it just the way he’d envisioned it. He’d placed really nice barstools around the bar, and for the floor, he put in pool tables and a dart wall. He’d bought several TVs and mounted them to the wall, and hung nice long Edison lights from the beams. It was a lowly lit bar, enough to be intimate but you could still see. He finished his office too, he’d left the walls the same color but added in more furniture than just his desk and chair. He’d also put in two big, nice leather chairs. One night, Elena snuck down and hung some shelves and gifted him photos of her and their closest friends. She put a photo of herself on his desk, along with a picture of them together. On the shelves were photos of him and Stefan, he and Alaric, and a group photo of them they’d taken not long before they left. She also hung up a very nice painted picture of the Camaro. She had been in class when he’d found it the next morning and it melted his heart at the thought and the love she’d put into it. 

As exhausting as the month was, it was looking up. It was only one more day before Elena’s Thanksgiving break, which meant she would have an entire week off from school, plus the weekend. They’d planned a surprised trip to Mystic Falls and planned on staying at the Gilbert family lake house. They’d bought their plane tickets and had planned on leaving Friday after Elena got home. 

The next day, when Friday rolled around, Elena woke up in a good mood. The exhaustion had been replaced with excitement, and she was ready to get her day started. 

“Bag, coffee,” Damon kissed her, “kiss.” He smiled, “I’ll see you in a little while.” 

“Thank you,” she smiled, putting the bag over her shoulder and grabbing the coffee. “I love you, I’ll see you later.” 

“Love you,” he smiled, opened the door, and watched her walk out of the loft. 

While Elena was in class, Damon decided to pack for them. Their flight would leave at 6PM, which meant they needed to be there by at least 3:30. He took a big suitcase and packed them a week's worth of clothes, and all of their toiletries, chargers, and anything else they may need. Elena had already kind of told Damon what she wanted to bring and what she would need, so he went with the flow and had everything packed up in about an hour. 

Her day was going just as smoothly as his, her first two classes went by quickly, and there wasn’t a lot of assigned work to do. To her surprise, the professors went easy on them, they were probably just as excited for this break as them. After the end of her second class, she had lunch with the group. They went back to the cafe that was starting to grow on her and had some soup. They all talked about what they were doing for Thanksgiving. Ben had planned on partying, as usual, Lauren was staying with her parents, and so was Jules. 

“So you’re going to be gone the entire week?” Lauren asked her. 

“Yeah, we’re gonna surprise everyone and just show up. My family has a cabin on the lake and we’re gonna stay there.”

“Jealous,” Jules told her, and Elena laughed. 

After lunch, she went to her next class, which was a lab. It went by quickly as well, and at 1:00 Elena had never been so happy. She said goodbye to her friends and drove back to the loft.

“I’m home,” Elena called from the bottom of the steps entering the loft. When she walked up she found Damon sitting on the couch reading a book. 

He smiled, and closed it, “Hey, how was your day?”

“It was good, it went by quickly, thank god.” She replied, plopping herself down beside him. 

He leaned over and placed a chaste kiss on her lips, “good.”

“How about you,” she asked him.

“I packed us up, had breakfast, and have been reading this book for about an hour,” he smirked.

She giggled, reading the title, “Harry Potter? I would have never pegged you as a guy that would read this.”

“Well it was in a box of your books and it seemed promising…Sorta.” He chuckled. 

When she had gotten home it was around 1:30, so they had sandwiches for lunch and then decided to shower before leaving for the airport. After their shower, they both put on comfy clothes and made their way to Portland International. 

They were both excited, not only to see their friends who’d become their family but also because they could spend the entire week together without any interruptions from school or business. Their flight would arrive in Virginia around midnight, after an hour layover in Missouri and then they would drive from Charlottesville to Mystic falls. 

After making it to the airport, and getting through security, they only had to wait around 45 minutes to board their flight. The airport was extra crazy due to the nearing holiday. Once they boarded the plane and were settled in they ordered a few drinks. For the majority of the flight, they talked and ended up watching bits of a movie before dozing off. 

It was around 9:30 when they landed in Missouri, and they decided since they had a little over an hour they would find something to eat. Unfortunately, they had no luck because everything was closed, so they settled on vending machine snacks. They ended up getting water and cookies and then found their gate and waited to board again. 

“Probably shouldn’t have passed on the airplane food.” Damon laughed, taking a bite of a stale cookie. 

“Yeah, not our best move,” she giggled. 

They boarded their last flight around 10:45 and shortly after boarding they both fell asleep again. The flight went by very quickly, Damon stirred awake first and checked the time. 

He looked down at a sleeping Elena and smiled, he placed a soft kiss on her forehead causing her to stir. “Hey, we’re gonna land soon.”

“What time is it?” She asked sleepily. 

“11:40” 

When their flight did land they quickly made their way off of the plane and to baggage claim. Once they had their suitcase, they made their way to the desk and picked up the keys for their rental car. Once they had the keys, they made their way to the garage and packed their things into the car. 

“Feels so different to be back,” Elena told him, switching on the heat in the SUV.

“Yeah, it feels strange. Even more so as a human. Usually coming home meant tormenting Stefan or visiting my mother’s grave, now it’s just a happy family visit.” He chuckled.

“I think we’ve outdone ourselves with this surprise. Caroline was just telling me how upset she was that we wouldn’t be there for Friendsgiving.” Elena laughed, “Her exact words were ‘we’ve not spent a holiday together in five years and you’re telling me that you’re not coming home from Portland?’”

Damon laughed, “Blondie is a bit dramatic when it comes to events.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way, I guess. She’s been like this since we were little.”

They made it to the lakehouse around 1:30 in the morning, and quickly grabbed their bags out of the car and went into the house. When they got inside she was overwhelmed with emotion, everything was exactly the same as the last time she’d been here, nothing was touched, nothing had really been touched since her parents died. With her life being so busy she hadn’t really had much time to think about them. 

Damon sat the bags down beside the stairs and immediately went to the fireplace. “This place is a block of ice, I’m gonna have to go to the shed and get wood.”

“Okay, need me to come?”

“No, stay inside, it’s cold.” He replied, taking a blanket off of the couch and wrapping it around her before walking outside. 

She looked around some more, at all of the photos on the walls, and drawings, and thought about all of the good memories she had of this place. This was the last place she had of her parents. She walked down the hallway and into her parent's bedroom, it was the same as when she came here with Stefan, she smiled once more and closed the door. When she walked back into the living room, Damon was back and starting a fire, it didn’t take long, and when he was done they both plopped down onto the couch. He pulled her legs on top of his lap and rubbed them, trying to warm her up. 

“You okay?” He asked, noticing how quiet she’d been.

“Yeah, just a lot of emotions. I haven’t been here since I was sired to you,” she smiled.

“Ugh, don’t remind me.” He replied, and they both laughed. “Seriously, how are you doing?”

“I just haven’t thought about my parents in so long. We would spend holidays here, Aunt Jenna would come with us. This is really the only place I have left of them.” 

“They would be so proud of you, Lena,” he smiled. 

He was right, they would be proud of her. She was following in her dad’s footsteps’ and she was in a happy, loving relationship with the love of her life, and she didn’t know how life could ever be better than it is right now. She hadn’t been this happy since before her parents died. 

They didn’t mean to fall asleep on the couch, but the minute they both got warm again, they were out. When she woke up the next morning, her legs were still on Damon’s lap, and Damon's body was shifted towards the left and his head was resting on the arm of the couch. She rubbed her eyes and sat up. She tried her best to lay Damon down on the couch when she got up, but when he was asleep he was dead weight, and she couldn't move his whole body. At least his legs were off of the floor. 

She walked over and grabbed her phone, it was 11:30 AM. She walked over and into the kitchen and looked through the cabinets and fridge, they were both empty. Thankfully there was filtered water, so she could at least have something to drink. 

She walked over to the large windows and sliding door that overlooked the lake. It was beautiful here. The lake was so peaceful and the trees were mostly bare, but the leaves that remained were a reddish orangey color. She opened the sliding door and stepped outside. It was cold, and the wind was blowing fiercely, but it was breathtaking. The air was crisp and smelled so much fresher than it did in Portland. She had missed it here. 

The sound of the door sliding open disrupted her thoughts, “Good morning,” she smiled. 

“Good morning,” he said groggily, walking over and wrapping his arms around her. He was so warm. “How long have you been awake?”

“Not long, just a few minutes. Long enough to realize it’s almost noon and there’s no food in the house,” She giggled.

She could feel him smile behind her, “I can’t believe we slept that long, I don’t even remember falling asleep.”

“Neither do I, I just remember waking up with a bad back.” They both laughed.

“You wanna go get ready and head to the boarding house?” 

“Yes, and breakfast,” she laughed. 

When she turned around he kissed her, “I love you.”

She smiled, after all of this time he still gave her butterflies, “I love you!”

-

They were both showered and ready to go in about an hour. “I always forget how great you look in a flannel,” Elena said, biting her lip and running her hands down his chest. 

Damon smirked, “The leather jacket just wasn’t doing it for me anymore. I haven’t had to worry about getting cold in over 150 years.”

“The luxuries of being a vampire,” she giggled. 

Once they gathered everything they would need for the day, they headed to the boarding house. It was only about a 20 minute drive from the lakehouse. When they pulled up, they parked beside of Caroline’s car and got out. Everything had still looked the same, except for a plaque that was placed outside of the house that said “Salvatore Boarding House: For the Young & Gifted.”

“Should we knock?” Elena asked. 

“Nah, we can just go in. Everyone should be gone for break anyways.” Damon smiled, opening the door. “Well at least the inside hasn’t changed that much.”

Just before she could reply Damon was being slammed into the nearest wall. “Caroline, it’s me!” He yelled, and she quickly let him go. 

“Elena? Damon? WHAT?” Caroline replied confused but excited nonetheless. 

She vamp sped over to Elena and hugged her. “What are you guys even doing here, I could have killed you.”

“Just visiting, with no intention of being a snack,” Damon replied sassily, and Caroline rolled her eyes before bringing him into a hug. 

“We wanted to surprise you for Friendsgiving,” Elena smiled. “We got in last night and stayed at the lakehouse.”

“You guys!!! I’m so happy, I was really sad because I thought we were gonna spend another holiday apart, and Bonnie isn’t coming home, and it was all going to suck.” Caroline whined and hugged Elena again. 

She giggled, “it’s fun being the one who plans the surprise.”

“I couldn’t plan anything right now, I’m barely planning Friendsgiving.” Caroline laughed, “running a boarding house is a lot more work than it seems to be. It's like having 25 kids of your own to look after.”

“Where is everyone?” Damon asked, walking around the parlor. 

“Ric and the girls are buying a turkey, Jeremy is out with Matt, and well the kids that are usually here are home for the next week.”

“And the booze?” Damon replied.

“Damon! You can’t have alcohol in a house full of kids.” 

Damon laughed, “you’re too easy to rile up.”

Caroline rolled her eyes again, “if he’s holding you against your will, blink twice.” She told Elena.

Elena laughed, “if anything it’s the other way around.”

Caroline laughed, she knew how happy Damon made Elena. In a million years she would have never guessed they would’ve ended up together, but she was happy for them, and while Elena was in a sleep coma, Caroline had gotten close enough to Damon to see that he really wasn’t the bad guy. 

“You guys want anything to drink or eat, you must be tired from traveling.”

“Actually, I’m starving and would love something to eat,” Damon told her, walking past her to go into the kitchen. 

Damon ended up baking a pizza and they sat in the kitchen and talked. Elena told her all about med school and they talked about how the bar was coming along and the opening date. They told her how nice Portland was and the friends they’d came to make. By the time they finished the pizza, they heard the door open and little feet come running inside. 

“Mommy,” the twins yelled in sync.

“Kitchen,” Caroline called back. 

They heard the direction of their feet change and start running toward the kitchen, “Mom, we got the biggest turkey— Uncle Damon and Auntie Lena?” Josie said excitedly. 

Both Josie and Lizzie ran over to each of them, hugging them tightly. 

“We haven’t seen you in like ten years,” Lizzie told Elena. 

Elena giggled, “it hasn’t been ten years, but it’s been a while.” 

When Alaric walked into the kitchen, he was just as shocked as Caroline was. “When did you guys get here? How did you guys get here? I guess that answers my question about the SUV in the driveway.”

When Lizzie crawled out of Elena’s lap, she stood up to hug him. “We got here last night, we wanted to surprise you.”

“Mission accomplished,” Ric laughed, hugging Damon. 

“Good to see you, brother. Glad the place is still standing.”

Alaric snorted, “barely.”

Elena helped Caroline put the groceries away while Alaric and Damon caught up with a drink in Alaric’s study.

“He really missed him,” Elena told her. “With all of the chaos going on in our lives he hasn’t really had time to bond with someone else. He talks to my friends, minus Ben for obvious reasons, and some guys when we go train at the gym but he needs another Ric.” 

“Why doesn’t he like Ben?” Caroline asked.

“Well, we went to a Halloween party, and I thought he was being crazy, but then Ben kinda hit on me and Damon hasn’t liked him since,” she giggled. 

“Understandable,” Caroline replied. “But Ric misses him too, he doesn’t have a Damon around anymore. Do you think you’ll ever move back?”

“I don’t know, Portland is amazing and everything we want, but then waking up in Mystic Falls this morning was just— felt so… like home.”

Caroline smiled, “We miss having you around, a lot. Not having you or Bonnie sucks.”

Elena smiled, “I miss you guys too. Jules and Lauren defiantly aren’t Caroline and Bonnie. But who knows, maybe someday we’ll move back.”

Damon and Elena ended up spending the whole day at the Salvatore house. That evening Jeremy ended up coming home and was so excited to see them. They ended up talking and catching up and then having dinner together. It was something they’d all been needing. After dinner, they’d played board games with the girls, they really loved their aunt and uncle, and before they left they tucked them in and said goodnight.

They left the boarding house around 7:30 that night, and thankfully found a grocery store that was still open. They got the groceries and things they would need for the week and headed back to the lakehouse. When they arrived, they put away the groceries and decided to call it a night. After traveling, sleeping on a couch, and an eventful day, they were tired. They got ready for bed and headed to Elena’s room. 

“Ah yes, just how I remember it,” Damon smirked, laying down on the bed.

Elena laughed and climbed into bed beside him, he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer to him. Their legs were locked together and she rested her head on his chest. 

“Today was so nice,” she finally said. 

“Yes, it was. It was nice to see everyone.”

“Do you ever miss living here?” She whispered. 

“Um, sometimes. But I love living in Portland, with you, starting our life.” He reassured her, kissing her forehead. 

“Sometimes I miss it too.”

“It’s normal, this has been your home for all of your life.”

“Yeah, it’ll be easier to come back once I’m done with med school. I keep telling myself that once I’m done with it, everything will be so much easier, I’m not rushing it, or I’m trying not to rush it. Everything has just been so overwhelming.” She said sleepily.

“Once the semester is over everything will chill out, just gotta make it until then.” He said, snugging his head against hers.

Before she could reply her eyes finally gave out and she fell into a peaceful sleep. Damon laughed and turned the lamp off beside him, and quickly fell asleep right behind her.

The next morning when she woke up, it was gloomy outside, she could tell it was going to rain. She and Caroline had planned on a girl's day, they were going to shop, have lunch and get pedicures together while Alaric and Damon spent the day together. Jeremy had kindly agreed to watch the twins, which he’d become very attached to. 

She rolled over and looked at the clock, it was 9AM, and Caroline would be here at noon. Just as she was about to get out of the bed, she felt an arm snake around her waist, pulling her back to him.

“Don’t go,” he said sleepily. 

She smiled and rolled around to face him. He looked the cutest in the mornings, with his messy hair, and sleepy eyes. She smiled and stroked his cheek, “Caroline will be here in two hours, I need to shower and get ready,” she giggled. “You know she’s always early.”

“Five more minutes.”

“Okay, five more minutes,” she agreed. 

He smiled and ran his hand down her back and to her ass, squeezing it, causing her hips to thrust against his. 

“Maybe longer than five minutes,” she mumbled against his lips. 

She kissed him, slowly and tenderly, stroking her tongue against his. He moaned into her mouth, sliding his hand down her thigh and bringing it up around his waist. He was only in his boxers and she could feel how hard he already was. It didn’t take much to get either one of them in the mood, that was another thing about being in love, the desire was always there. Elena had never been in a relationship with so much desire, not even with Stefan… there was desire, but not like it was with Damon. She could never get enough of him. 

With just a little effort, Damon flipped over so that Elena was now on top of him. He smiled, and lifted the long sweater above her head, and tossed it on to the floor. Her nipples instantly hardened the moment the cold air hit them, and he smirked. He ran his hands up her sides and cupped both breasts in his hands. 

“You’re beautiful,” he told her. 

“So are you,” she looked down at him in awe, and then leaned down to kiss him again. This time she kissed him a little harder, sloppier, and with the help of him, she got his boxers off, leaving only her in her panties. She lifted her hips up and let him work them off her legs, it was a bit awkward but they managed to finally get them off. They giggled, and then he kissed her again. She slowly sunk down onto his thick cock and they both moaned. Damon intertwined their fingers together and she slowly started to move. 

It didn’t take long for him to meet her thrusts and get them into an in synced rhythm. It quickly became frantic, and her moans became louder as she picked up her pace. This was one of his favorite Elena Gilbert looks, her riding him. Her hair was down and messy from sleeping, and with every thrust she did this thing with her hips that drove him mad. 

She threw her head back and let out a deep moan, his thumb found her clit and he started to make little circles around it, pushing her further and further to the edge. Her legs began to shake, and before she could say or do anything she had one of the most intense orgasms of her life, causing her to squirt. 

“Oh my god, Lena. Did you just-” Damon breathed out, “Oh you did, that’s so hot.” And that was all it took for his orgasm to take him. He spilled inside of her, continuing to thrust until his body was finally done and he wasn’t seeing stars anymore. 

She’d only squirted one other time in their relationship other than this and that was the summer before she went to college. She remembered feeling so embarrassed, and so confused. She’d never done it before, so Damon explained that it was a really good thing and told her not to feel ashamed of it. It was beyond hot for him. 

“That was so good, baby.” He panted, “I can’t believe you—” he smirked. 

Her cheeks got red, “Sorry, it’s so messy… and literally everywhere.”

“Hey, what’d I tell you? Nothing to be embarrassed about. It’s a different kind of hot when I can make you do that, it means it was a really, really good orgasm.” 

She smirked, “super good, it came out of nowhere.”

He pulled her down for one more kiss and she rolled off of him, they both went and showered together. When they were done with their shower, Damon got ready first, leaving Elena in the bathroom to finish. While she was finishing, Damon went and stripped the bed and put everything into the washer, and then made them both a bagel with cream cheese and coffee. 

“Hey, breakfast,” he told her, motioning her over to the island. 

“Thanks,” she smiled, taking a seat on the stool.

“You’re welcome…” 

By the time they’d showered, gotten ready, and finished their bagels it was 11:40, and just as Elena had suspected, Caroline showed up. Damon and Elena said their goodbyes, and Elena got in the car with Caroline and Damon went to meet Ric.

The next four days they spent in Mystic Falls was pure bliss. They spent almost all their time with Caroline, Ric, and Jeremy. Elena and Jeremy even spent a day together out on the lake. They talked about everything and caught up from the time he’d left and what it was like for him after she’d been put in a sleep coma. Damon and Elena still made time to spend alone though, but it was mostly in the evenings and late at night. The day before Thanksgiving they took the girls to the park and then went and got ice cream cones. It definitely confirmed that both Damon and Elena wanted kids, it was nice to spend time with just the girls, they were a lot of fun and thought Damon was the most fun, coolest uncle that ever existed. 

When Thanksgiving day rolled around, Caroline wanted to do dinner at 3PM. They woke up at 11 that morning and started to get ready. Damon and Elena were in charge of the green beans, so after cooking them, they put them in a sealed container and then into a hot/cold bag. They’d been ready to go by 2, so they decided to head over early. 

When they got there, the girls were running around, Alaric and Jeremy were watching football and playing with the girls, and Caroline was checking the turkey.

“Hi, you made it.” Caroline smiled, taking the bag from her hands.

“Need any help?” Damon asked her, walking around and looking at the turkey. 

“Nope, that bad boy has about 20 more minutes, and you brought green beans and everything else is finished and in the chafing pans,” Caroline replied proudly. 

Having someone super organized during stressful holidays was nice. Most people are running around in a frenzy trying to get everything done, but Caroline was ahead of the game. 

Around the time dinner was almost done, and Elena and Caroline were setting the table, Matt showed up. Elena hadn’t gotten to see him much since coming home because he was so busy. 

“Hey, guys,” he smiled, “where should I put this?” He asked, holding up a big tub of corn and booze.

“Here, I’ll take it,” Caroline told him.

When the table was set, Caroline called them into the kitchen and they all gathered in and started eating.

“I say, we all go around and say something we’re thankful for,” Alaric told them. “I’ll go first, I’m thankful to have all of us together again for the holiday, minus Bonnie but she’s living her best life.” They all laughed. 

“I’m thankful to be out of my sleep coma, and living a happy human life, with all of you guys and the love of my life,” Elena smiled raising her glass of wine. 

“I’m thankful to also be living a happy, human life with all of you guys and the love of my life,” Damon said. 

“I’m thankful for you guys and this amazing opportunity to work at this amazing school,” Jeremy told everyone, taking a drink out of his glass. 

“Same here, but for the opportunities I’ve been offered as a sheriff.” Matt copied. 

“I am thankful for the best surprise that my best friend could’ve given me, I’m so happy to have her home for the week. I’m sad Bon couldn’t be here, but as you said, she’s living her best life. I’m thankful for my girls, and this family, and this school, and most of all I’m thankful for a normal Friendsgiving.” She laughed. 

They all toasted their glasses and drank. After dinner, the boys did the dishes, and the girls hung out in the living room, watching the parade. They spent the rest of the evening at the boarding house and headed home late that evening. 

The next day after Thanksgiving would be their last day. Their flight was Saturday at 6PM, just like before. They spent Friday at the lakehouse, preparing to have a bonfire because the twins had never had one. That evening, Damon built a big fire and showed them how to make s' mores the right way. He made a few for the girls, and then one for his girl.

“Extra chocolate, just for you,” he told her, feeding her a bite. “Careful, it might be hot.”

She moaned, she hadn’t had s’ mores in so long she’d forgotten what they tasted like. “Delicious,” she smiled. 

“Remember that time when we made these with Mom and Dad and ate so many that we got sick?” Jeremy laughed. 

“And then we had to beg dad to have them the next time we came back here.” Elena laughed.

“I always think of the back to school bonfires when I eat s’ mores,” Caroline said, taking a bite of hers. 

After indulging in lots of s’ mores, and Damon telling ghost stories, the twins were sleepy and they decided to call it a night. This would be their final goodbye until next time and it made them all sad to think about. After saying goodbye to the twins, Alaric put them in the car. 

“I love you both, text me the moment you land,” Caroline told them, hugging them both at the same time. 

“Love you, Care bear. Thanks for a great time.” Damon told her.

“Yeah, we love you so much!” Elena smiled.

Damon hugged Jeremy while Elena hugged Alaric, and then they switched. They said their goodbyes and I love yous and watched them leave. When they looked at each other they both had tears in their eyes. 

“This time seems harder,” Damon told her. “Pesky emotions,” he said.

Elena hugged him, “it does seem harder this time. I didn’t realize how much I missed them until I saw them again.”

They spent a little while longer around the fire, and around midnight went inside. They both fell asleep pretty easily, this week was tiring but so worth it. 

The next morning they woke up around 10 AM and had breakfast. They showered and packed their bags, and then packed them into the car. They locked up and left the lakehouse around 2PM. On their way to the airport, they stopped by the family crypt. Caroline had kept it spotless, even shined Stefan’s plaque. For a moment Damon looked at it, and then tears welled into his eyes. 

“I miss him, Elena.”

“I know,” she whispered, wrapping him in a hug. 

“I thought this would be easy to come back and see, but in the back of my mind, I knew I wanted this to be the last stop. I feel so guilty, he should be here with us.”

“I know, you’re right… But you shouldn’t feel guilty Damon, it was his choice. And when it comes to choices you have to respect them,” she said, kissing his forehead. 

For a moment they sat there hugging, both sad, and silent. Her heart broke for him. He lifted his head up and wiped his tears, “you’re right. It’s just hard.”

She smiled at wearily, “I know it is, baby.”

He hugged her again, and then placed a chaste kiss on her lips. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

They stood there for a moment longer and then said goodbye again. They made it back home around 1:30 in the morning, and headed straight to bed, both grateful for the amazing week they spent in Mystic Falls.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, I'm sorry for taking so long to update... My life has been super busy, but everything is calming back down again... so it won't take me a whole week to update anymore, lol. Enjoy!

December

December brought finals, lots of studying, and Christmas. The first two weeks after they got back from Mystic Falls was busy. Elena spent most of her time locked away studying, she knew the material like the back of her hand but took no chances. She studied a lot with Jules, they would lock themselves in Elena’s study and stay in there for hours. Damon on the other hand spent his time trying to find someone to hire for the bar. In the past two weeks, he’d interviewed probably fifty people and they all annoyed him.

The second week of December was Elena’s last week before another break. This time it would be two whole weeks for Christmas and New Years. Two days before the Friday of her finals, Jules invited Elena and Lauren over to her apartment for a study session, which in the long run turned out to be a bad idea, and lead to Damon and Elena’s first big fight since they became human.

She was just going over to study, there was no plan to drink and she didn’t think her phone would die until both happened and Damon freaked out.

“Woah, it’s 12:05…” Jules said giggly.

“It’s what?” Elena asked, searching for her phone. “Damnit, my phone is dead, Damon is probably out of his mind worried about me, I was supposed to be back at 11,” she said in a panic.

Elena quickly grabbed her things and packed up, “I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

“Wait are you okay to drive?” Lauren asked her.

“Yeah, I’m fine, my buzz is gone. I promise.”

She quickly exited Jule's apartment and rushed back home to the loft, when she arrived he was waiting at end of the steps.

“Where in the hell have you been, Elena. I’ve been worried sick about you,” he said angrily.

“Damon, I’m so sorry…” She told him, sitting her books down and taking off her jacket. “We were having fun and the time slipped away from me.”

“You couldn’t have picked up someone else’s phone and let me know you weren’t laying in a ditch somewhere. I’ve been out of my mind for the last hour and a half thinking something bad happened to you, with no way to contact you… or even have an address to come and find you,” he yelled.

“Damon, calm down… Why are you so angry with me, it’s not like I meant to lose track of the time,” she sighed, running her hands through her hair.

“I’m angry because I was scared,” he yelled, “Helpless, just waiting around for you to call or come home. Angry because I love you so much it hurts and the thoughts of something bad happening to you- I can’t. There’s no point in living if it’s not with you.”

“Damon, I’m sorry… You know that I would never do that on purpose, and I know that you’re upset… I get it, but I’m a grown woman and you have to trust that if something did happen to me, that I could take care of myself… and I didn’t pick up a phone and call because I rushed home.” She said gently, finally sitting down beside him.

“Fine, Elena… You’re right, you’re a grown woman, next time just shoot me a text and I’ll be out of your hair,” he said harshly, and stood up and walked out the door.

His words hurt her, and she felt tears course down her cheeks. In all of the arguments they’d had, he’d never left her. He didn’t know where he was going, he just left. He got into his camaro drove the streets of the city for what felt like hours, the memories that Stefan gave him of a human life kept replaying through his mind. After driving around for about an hour, his anger had subsided and he realized what a giant dick he was. It scared him, the thought of losing her, but he should’ve never acted the way he did. This was their first big fight since they’d both took the cure, everything had been smooth sailing until now. When he stopped at the red-light, he let his head rest against the seat and close his eyes, he thought back to the night that Stefan and Klaus attacked her at the school, the night they made Tyler Lockwood a hybrid… He’d promised to never leave her again. He sighed and felt the tears start to well in his eyes.

He quickly rushed back to the loft, he wasn’t far, he’d already subconsciously started making his way back awhile ago. When he arrived, he saw Elena asleep on the couch and swallowed hard. Her eyes were puffy and red, and she had tear-stained cheeks.

He walked over to her and picked her up, carrying her upstairs and into the bedroom. When he laid her down on the bed, he took off her jeans and tucked her in. He at least wanted to try and make her comfortable, but he knew he couldn’t put her pjs on without waking her. After tucking her in, he went back downstairs and took off his shoes and jacket and turned off all of the lights. By this time it was almost four in the morning. When he got back upstairs, he crawled in bed beside her.

“I love you…” She said quietly, facing the opposite direction of him.

His heart broke, “I love you too, Lena.”

—

The next morning was rough, she did not want to get out of bed. She looked over and saw Damon asleep, his head was against the headboard and he was on top of the covers. She quietly made her way into the bathroom, and quickly showered and got ready. She just barely made it to the medical center without being late.

Her day was long and felt never-ending. She had finals in her first two classes, and then test prep in her lab for the final that would take place the next day. When she finally did get home to the loft and was exhausted. She took her shoes and jacket off and walked up the stairs. She saw Damon on the couch reading, but before he could say anything, she walked past him and upstairs to the bedroom.

She wasn’t laying on the bed long before she heard the door open and the weight of his body sit down next to her.

“Elena, I’m sorry…” He whispered, “I overreacted and I’m so sorry. I never meant to hurt you, or walk away—”

“But you did, you just walked away.” She said, lifting her face from the pillow.

“Look at me,” he whispered, and she did, “I made you a promise all those years ago that I would never leave you again… and I did. I’m sorry that I overreacted, I just love you so much Elena, and I was so worried and felt so helpless and in typical Damon fashion I lashed out. But the entire time I couldn’t reach you I was expecting the worse. I couldn’t stop thinking about what Stefan showed me, all those years ago before I took the cure and my emotions were all out of wack… But that doesn’t give me the right to behave the way I did or say what I said, but I’m trying…” He said sadly.

She sat up in the bed and cupped his cheek in her hand, “I forgive you, Damon. I know your worry came from a place of love, but you can’t get that upset with me and then just walk away… We’re partners, we’re supposed to talk things through until we figure it out, together.” She smiled, “I love you, and I’m sorry that I left without at least calling you. Next time I promise to call, and next time I’ll at least give you an address,” she giggled.

He smiled and pulled her in for a passionate kiss, pulling her closer to him. He held her like that for a few moments, they both hated fighting.

“What did Stefan show you?”

Damon sighed, “The day he took me to that house he owned, the day you wanted him to show me a human life gone wrong, he showed me what it would be like if you died…what my life would be like.”

She looked at him with sad eyes, “I’m sorry, Damon. I shouldn’t have told him to show you what could’ve gone wrong.”

“It’s okay…” he smiled, “He made good points, at the end of the day you didn’t want me to have any regrets and I don’t,” he smiled, kissing her again.

—

The next day was the start of Elena’s Winter break, when she’d gotten home from class, she and Damon decided to spend the rest of the day in bed. She had been exhausted from school and just wanted to take a moment to breathe. Finals had been fairly easy, but she wouldn’t know her score until she went back.

The next morning when they woke up the outside was covered in snow. It was the first big snow since they’d gotten there, it had only been flurrying since late November.

“Damon it snowed!” Elena said excitedly, opening the curtains in their bedroom.

He walked over and kissed the side of her head, “Looks like it’s going to be extra cold when we go get a tree.”

“Tell me again why you want to cut a Christmas tree down, there are plenty of farms around here,” she giggled.

“Well technically we are going to a farm, I’ll just be the one cutting it down,” he smirked. “It’s a tradition, well, it was Stefan and I’s tradition, but I want it to be ours too, and our kids.”

She smiled, “What was Christmas like when you were a kid, you said it was your favorite.”

He grinned at her, “We would always go out into the forest and cut a tree down. Father took us until I was about fourteen, after that it was on Stefan and me. We would use popcorn as decorations and other little things Stefan and I would make. We used Father’s socks as stockings and would each get a couple of presents from Santa, usually little wooden toys… Mother baked a lot and we’d have one big family dinner together before going caroling with the church. After mother died Christmas also started to die, but Stef was so young so I kept the traditions alive as best I could, I just wish he could’ve had more than sixteen Christmas'’.”

“That sounds so nice and simple… I’ve never cut down a tree before,” she smiled, walking from the window over to him. “Other than that Christmas was pretty much the same for us, minus caroling with the church,” she giggled.

“You’re gonna learn from a pro on how to cut a tree down, but please do not make me carol, I hated it has a child…” he smiled softly, “I was a shy boy.”

She smiled and kissed him, “I wish I could’ve met you in 1864, not because I want anything different from how you are now, but because I would’ve loved to see the boy who was so innocent.”

He laughed, “he was soft and too much of a hopeless romantic… A lovesick puppy if you will, not even fighting in the Civil War could change that… Just Katherine and the vampirism.”

She laughed, “There’s no such thing as a too much of a hopeless romantic, Damon… And Katherine could make a priest sin.”

Damon belly laughed and kissed her. They both quickly showered and got ready. They dressed warm; both in jeans and thick sweaters, boots, and big heavy jackets. Damon packed gloves and scarves too. They took her SUV because it was more equipped for both the snow and a tree. Damon drove them about forty-five minutes out of the city and to a Christmas tree farm. When they arrived, there weren’t as many cars as they expected, only a few and trees scattered as far as the eye could see.

Damon got out of the car first and went and opened her door for her, “here, put these on.” He told her, taking a hand a shoving a glove into it.

“Thanks,” she smiled, and took the other one, sliding it on to her hand. It was cold, cold enough that every time they spoke or breathed out you could see their breath. They made their way to the front booth and got a ticket, the man handed them an ax and told them that they could take any tree on the property and prices depended on the tree you chose.

“So, where to start?” Damon asked, slinging the ax over his shoulder.

“You’re the Christmas tree expert,” she giggled, “you tell me.”

They walked a bit further from the front and into the maze of trees, “well, we have tall ceilings, so we can have a huge one… Well, as big as your vehicle can fit,” he laughed.

They saw a group of bigger trees to the left of them and walked over, Damon observed them… He went by color, smell, how sturdy the limbs were, he took it all in.

“I think this one is the one,” Elena told him, looking at the same tree he was. “It passed all your tests.”

He laughed, “Well, it’s good and tall, sturdy, smells beautiful, and has great color… I think we found a winner.”

“Okay, but can take I swing at it?”

He narrowed his eyes at her, and smiled, “Okay fine, but you have to be careful.” He told her, handing over the ax.

“Okay, a lot heavier than I anticipated it to be,” she laughed.

He smiled at her, “here, let me help..” He said, wrapping his arms and hands around hers. “You gotta put all your weight into it,” he whispered in her ear, and took both of their arms and did a hard swing.

“Again,” she whispered back, and he did. It took a few swings but they eventually got it down.

With perfect timing, the same guy that was at the front entrance came around in a golf cart with a trailer on the back, “Want a ride back?” He asked, stopping beside them.

“Sure!” Damon replied.

They both got the tree onto the bed of the trailer and Damon and Elena climbed on the cart with the man. He drove them all the way back to the SUV and helped Damon tie the tree to the top of it. Damon paid the man and said goodbye. After they were back in the car, they cranked the heat up and sat there for a moment.

“This was really fun,” Elena smiled, blowing her warm breath into her hands.

“I’m glad you enjoyed it as much as I did.”

When they got back to the loft, they worked as a team to get the tree inside and on its stand. When they finally did, they both looked back and proudly observed such a beautiful tree. They spent the next few hours shopping, they needed things to decorate with. They bought tons of lights and ornaments, and each picked out a stocking. By the time they got back home to the loft, it was late in the evening. They decided to order takeout food and start decorating the tree.

While they waited for their food, they put Christmas music on and started with putting the lights on on the tree, this was the most tedious part for both of them. After the lights, they put on silver garland, and then the ornaments. They weren’t going for a themed tree, so they bought a variety pack of red and silver balls and a few figurines of reindeer, sleighs, and elves.

When the food arrived, Damon paused the music and went down to meet the delivery man. He paid and tipped him and then made his way back upstairs.

“Ready to eat?” Damon asked her, sitting the bag down on the counter.

“So ready, I’m starving,” she giggled.

They went to the table and ate their dinner and talked about how they wanted to decorate the loft. The tree was almost done and they wanted to start on the other stuff once they were finished.

When they were finished eating, they finished up the tree. They added a tree skirt and then the tree topper. It was a beautiful white and golden glass star.

“The honor should be yours,” Elena told him, handing him the star, "my dad would always do it."

He smiled and took a step on the step-ladder and placed the star on top of the tree. He hooked it up to the outlet on the lights and it lit up.

“I think we did a pretty amazing job,” Damon smiled, standing beside her.

“I think so too,” she smiled and leaned up to kiss him.

Now that the tree was done, they started on the other decorations. They wrapped lights and garland down the stair rales coming into the loft and going upstairs. They also put little knickknacks around the house that just gave it the Christmas vibe. Once the whole loft was decorated, the only thing left to do was put their stockings up. Both Elena and Damon chose a red and white one, the bottom half was red and the top was a fury white. Since they didn’t have a fireplace to hang them on, they hung them on the wall beside the tree, next to the big open window.

“Finally done,” Elena said, plopping down on to the couch.

“And the place looks amazing, we’re definitely going on the nice list,” Damon replied, sitting down next to her. They sat and talked for a few more minutes and decided to call it a night and go to bed.

—

In the days leading up to Christmas, Damon and Elena spend their time watching Christmas movies and drinking cocoa. They made Christmas cookies together, Damon’s recipe, and they turned out perfect. Elena even took Damon ice skating for the first time, he fell a lot and she laughed at him. A few days before Christmas they both went shopping for each other, but the deal was they couldn’t be at the same place at the same time. Elena was the first to make it back to the loft, she quickly made her way into her study and wrapped his gifts. While she was midway through wrapping, he got home with hers, taking it up to their bedroom. When they were both finished they placed the gifts under the tree and decided to go out and drive through the local neighborhoods and look at the Christmas light displays.

They probably drove around for hours looking at each house through several neighborhoods, the people around here really knew how to put on a show. The houses were covered in lights and the lawns were filled with inflatables and other little lit up things.

“Someday, when we have a family, I wanna do this with our kids,” Damon told her. “I want them to have the most lit up house on the street.”

Elena laughed and kissed his hand that was intertwined in hers, they’d been talking about having a family a lot more lately. They both knew they wanted to wait until she was through with med school, and well, married, but she couldn’t help but think about Damon as a dad and it made her long for it even more.

—  
On Christmas Eve they had their holiday dinner. Damon made a ham and they both made one of their favorite holiday sides. Damon made brown sugar-glazed carrots, and Elena made her mom’s famous scalloped potatoes. They didn’t make a lot of food considering it was just the two of them this year, but they made enough to indulge. With dinner, they had an old bottle of wine from Damon’s collection that was from 1972.

When they finished with dinner, they cleaned up and decided to watch their favorite Christmas movies in bed, not long after they both ended up falling asleep.

The next morning, Damon woke up first. He smiled and looked over at Elena, who was still sleeping and kissed her. He placed kisses all over her face until she finally stirred in her sleep.

“It’s Christmas…” he whispered, continuing to kiss her. “Time to wake up.”

She smiled and popped one eye open, “Merry Christmas, Damon.”

He kissed her deeply one last time and pulled her out of bed. It was nice to see him so excited… exactly like a kid on Christmas, it made her heart swell with happiness.

“You told me that when you were a kid, up until your parents passed away, that your Christmas morning tradition was to wake up early and sit around the tree and open gifts together… So I want to continue that tradition.” He told her, sitting down on the floor in front of the tree.

She smiled and sat down next to him, “I love you.”

“I love you,” he whispered back.

“Wanna start with the smallest and work our way up?”

“Sounds perfect, that’s the one I’m most excited about.” He smiled, handing her a little wrapped box. “You first.”

She carefully unwrapped the gift and saw a little a ring box that read ‘I promise.’ When she opened the box it was a beautiful silver and light rose gold ring that crossed together.

“It’s a promise ring…” He smiled, taking the ring from the box and sliding it onto the finger where her daylight ring use to sit.

“It’s so beautiful,” she smiled, looking down at her hand. “I love it.” She said, pulling him in for a kiss. He couldn’t have picked out a more gorgeous ring.

She closed the box and set it aside, and then grabbed the little box she’d wrapped for him, “here…”

He smiled and unwrapped the paper to find a medium-sized navy black box, when he opened it he saw two silver cuffed bracelets. She smiled and he picked up the larger sized one out of the box and read the engraving on the inside, ‘This is Forever.’

“One is for you and one is for me, and the promise that you made to me the first summer we spent together.”

“I love it, Lena,” he smiled softly, putting the bracelet around his wrist. “Here,” he said, taking the smaller one and putting it on hers before pulling her in for another kiss.

They spent the next thirty minutes exchanging gifts. She’d also gotten him bourbon glasses that had Salvatore engraved on them, a new leather jacket, and some clothes. Aside from the ring, he’d gotten her a new journal, a new yoga mat (because she’d started doing it a lot more), a new plush robe (because Portland was a lot colder than Virginia), and some clothes.

When they were done exchanging gifts, they decided to have breakfast. Damon made pancakes that looked like reindeer, and instead of coffee, Elena made hot cocoa.

They spent the rest of Christmas Day wrapped in a blanket, watching movies. They made love a few times and were grateful for such an amazing holiday that they got to share. The best one yet. They also facetimed with Caroline, Ric and the girls, and Bonnie.

For New Years they stayed home as well, they drank wine and counted down the seconds together, and at midnight, he kissed her and she kissed him back. They were both thankful for an amazing year… The year that she woke up and they got to start their lives together, and they were excited to see what 2018 had in store for them.


	10. Chapter 10

The first week of the new year started the short countdown to the bar's grand opening. They would open in nineteen days, which meant there was a lot of work to be done. Damon wanted to throw a hell of a party, which meant decorating, setting everything up, and finally hiring someone to help out. On Wednesday of that week, he set up more interviews with the people who’d emailed in resumes. He also set up an appointment to have window lettering done, 'The Salvatore Bar, open Wednesday-Saturday from 5PM-2AM.'

When Wednesday rolled around, he interviewed around ten people before a man walked in. He was young, only 24 but Damon saw something in him. His name was Luke, he had dirty blonde hair, green eyes, and was somewhat of an athletic build.

They took a seat at the bar and Damon poured them a drink, “this one is on me,” he smiled, “tell me about yourself.”

“Well,” Luke said, clearing his throat, “I come from a big family. I’m the oldest of six. My parents are both lawyers, and hard-asses… I was expected to go to law school, just like them… But I’m more of a writer, so the day I told them no is the day they cut me off. I haven’t spoken to them in almost four years, but I keep in contact with my siblings. To follow my dreams of being a writer I take odd jobs, I’ve mostly been working in restaurants, but I want something a little more.” He told him, “And I know, wanting to be a writer makes me sound kind of like a bore, but I can assure you that I have a big personality and I’m the life of the party amongst my friends.”

“You know anything about bartending?” Damon asked curiously, taking a sib of his bourbon. 

“Actually never bartended but I know how to make tons of different drinks.”

Damon smiled, there was something about him that he really liked. Not only did he remind him a little bit of his brother, but there was something else. “You know what Luke, I like you. Out of all the people I’ve met since trying to hire someone, you’re most interesting and less annoying,” they both laughed, “You’re hired… The opening is the 19th of this month, so that gives you 17 days to be ready.”

“Awesome,” he smiled, “thank you so much.”

“Here are the drinks, and how to make them… It’ll be you and me running the bar, so I need you to know it like the back of your hand.” Damon told him, sliding over a piece the paper. “This also has my number on it, so text or call me if you have questions or anything like that.”

“Okay, great, I’ll know them… How should I dress?”

Damon laughed, “casual, you’ll hardly see me in anything formal, and especially not in a uniform.”

Luke laughed, “even better, I hate dressing up too.” 

They sat down at the bar for about an hour talking and finishing their drinks. They got to know each other a little better, Damon told Luke all about Elena, moving from Mystic Falls, and his love of bars. Luke told Damon more about the stuff he was writing and his ambitions to make a life for himself, a little about friends, and how he was the black sheep of the family. After they finished their drinks, Luke said goodbye to Damon, and then Damon headed back into the loft. 

Elena had come home shortly after, she got there around 1:30 and Damon was making lunch. 

“Hey the windows look amazing, the lettering is beautiful,” she told him, sitting her bag down on the couch and walking over to the kitchen. 

Damon smiled, sliding her a plate with a sandwich on it, “I think so too, and I hired someone today.”

“You did?” She said excitedly.

“Yup, his name is Luke, he’s a kid…24 but something in my gut told me to hire him. I liked him, he reminded me of Stefan.”

“I’m honestly surprised you hired someone that young,” she giggled, “I was expecting for you to hire someone in their sixties, you know someone with your personality.”

Damon laughed, “Calling me old, are you? I can’t help that I actually have taste and class compared to the boys of your generation.”

She giggled and pulled his head down for a kiss, “it's okay, I happen to like older men.”

—  
On Friday the 18th, Damon woke up happy and without a care in the world. Everything was ready for the grand opening except for decorations, which he was only going to do balloons, so it was easy peasy. In the last few weeks he and Elena had passed out flyers and invited all of the people they knew, they even started an Instagram account. 

When he rolled over, he found a peacefully sleeping Elena and smiled, placing a soft kiss on her cheek. On top of all of her school work and studying, she still found all the time in the world to help him open this bar and be supportive through the entire, exhausting process. He stared at her for a few moments, taking in the glorious sight. Her hair was messy and her mouth was slightly open, he missed the days when he could use his vamp hearing to listen to her heart. This all reminded him of the days when he would sleep in her bed with her the summer Stefan went all Ripper with Klaus… It was so innocent and he would just watch her sleep for hours, listening to the beating of her heart and the soft breaths she would take.

Out of nowhere, she stirred, rubbing her hands over her eyes, “are you watching me sleep?”

He smiled and kissed her lips, “maybe… Just reminiscing.”

She smiled, “about?”

“The summer Stefan was all Ripper and you were fighting your love for me, but still let me sleep in your bed.”

She grinned because she knew it was true, she was sure she fell in love with him the day of her 18th birthday, but no matter how much she fought it, she’d always had feelings for him. She scooted closer to him in the bed and wrapped her arms around him. 

“Thanks for taking a day off school to help me with the bar,” he whispered. 

“I wouldn't have it any other way,” she smiled, playing with the hairs on the nape of his neck. 

He looked at her lovingly and kissed her deeply, letting his hand slide down her body and around her perfect ass. Just as he was about to make his move, they both heard the door buzz, and Damon let out a frustrated groan. 

It was almost an unfamiliar sound to them, no one ever came over. They both looked at each other in confusion and Damon stepped out of bed. 

“Who could that be?” She asked, also getting out of bed. Thankfully they were both properly dressed, but she was wearing shorts so she opted for also putting a robe on.

“Let’s go find out,” he told her, opening their bedroom door. “Whoever it is it better be important, we were just getting to the good part."

She giggled and followed him downstairs. When they left the loft and opened the door of the back entrance they were completely surprised. Caroline, Bonnie, and Alaric.

“What are you guys doing here?” Elena exclaimed, running outside to hug her best friends. 

“Surprise,” they both said, hugging her back.

Alaric wrapped Damon in a hug, “Hey brother.”

Damon smiled, “When did you guys get here?”

“This morning, did you really think we would miss the grand opening of The Salvatore Bar?” Caroline asked him. 

He smiled and hugged her, and then made his way to hug Bonnie. “BonBon, I didn’t even know you got back, it’s so good to see you.”

“I only told Caroline, I wanted it to be a surprise.” She smiled.

“Not to cut this reunion short, but it’s freezing, can we come in?” Alaric laughed.

“Oh yeah, of course, come on,” Damon told them, walking back inside. They all walked in except for Caroline.

“Have you completely forgotten what it was like to be a vampire?”

Damon and Elena laughed, “Caroline, you can come in,” Elena told her. 

They gave them a tour of the bar and Damon and Alaric grabbed a drink. They showed them what the bar looked like when they got here in comparison to what it was now. After they looked around the bar, Elena and Damon took them up to the loft. 

“This place is— spacious,” Bonnie told them, “the pictures doesn't do it justice.”

“Yeah, when I think loft I think of one giant room with everything in it, but this is nice,” Caroline told them. 

“We love it here, it was really run to decorate too,” Elena smiled.

“It’s very much both of you,” Bonnie said, looking around at all of the photos they had. 

They spent the next few minutes sitting around talking, catching up. Bonnie told them about all of the amazing adventures she’d had traveling through Paris all the way through Africa, and Alaric and Caroline filled them in on everything that was happening at the school. 

After catching up a little bit, Caroline told them they needed a girls day, and Bonnie and Elena agreed. 

“I know some great places now, we can get good food, do some shopping,” Elena told them. “Just give me like 30 minutes to get ready,” she giggled. 

“Sounds perfect, if you’ll show us where the guest room is we can go ahead and bring our bags in," Caroline told her.

“Oh, I can do that while you get ready,” Damon told Elena. She nodded and headed upstairs to shower. 

“You’re actually pretty lucky, we just got furniture for them not too long ago.” Damon laughed, walking them upstairs and showing them the guest rooms to the left. “Down at the end of that hallway is our room, and these,” he said pointing to the left and right, “are the guest rooms. You can split them however you’d like.”

While Elena was getting ready, Ric and Damon went back down to get the bags for the girls. It didn’t take Elena long before she was showered and ready to go. She gave Damon one last kiss and they left.

“So how’s human life been treating you?” Alaric asked, taking a sip of the coffee Damon made. 

“Honestly, it’s great. I knew I missed being a human, but now that I am, I could never go back,” Damon replied.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, being a human has so much more to offer. It was the best decision I’ve ever made.” Damon smiled, “Speaking of, follow me.” 

Alaric looked at Damon with a little confusion, but got up and followed him down and into his office in the bar. He watched as Damon bent down and started to open a little safe he had beside his desk.

“I’ve got the ring, I’m just waiting to pop the question… and well, you’re like a second dad to her,” Damon told him, opening a little red box with a beautiful diamond ring inside of it.

Alaric’s jaw dropped, and he smiled, “You have my blessing brother, when are you gonna ask her?”

“I’m waiting for the right time, I’ve had it for weeks now. I wanted to at least get the bar open, but I don’t want to be a clichè and do it so close to Valentine's day.”

“Well whenever you decide, she’s going to be over the moon.” Alaric smiled at him, “I never thought I’d approve of your relationship, but it’s obvious that nothing can come between you guys… I swear you’re literally soulmates, like not even death, compulsion, or spiritual comas can keep you apart,” he laughed.

Damon smiled, “I’ve never loved anything or anyone more than I love Elena Gilbert… Also, do me a favor and don’t tell Caroline, she couldn’t dare keep a secret like this.”

Alaric laughed, “Your secret is safe with me.”

Damon smiled and put the box back into the safe, closed, and locked it. 

While Damon and Alaric were hanging out at the bar, Elena, Bonnie, and Caroline spent the day shopping, sightseeing, and were about to have lunch at one of Damon and Elena’s favorite bar and grills. 

Elena got her usual caesar salad, Bonnie got a burger, and Caroline got a fancy turkey sandwich. Along with their food, they ordered a whole bottle of wine. 

“This place reminds me of the Grill,” Caroline told them, pouring wine in each of their glasses. 

“I think that’s why we like it so much, almost like having a little piece of home,” Elena replied, taking a sip.

“I’m just excited to have a burger, I haven’t had one since I left the states,” Bonnie laughed.

“Well here’s to us,” Caroline said, holding up her glass. “Bonnie’s back, Elena you’re awake, I’m having a children free day, and we’re all together.” 

“Cheers,” Bonnie and Elena said, clinking their glasses together. 

“So Bonnie, tell us about traveling the world,” Elena said, looking over at her.

“It’s been amazing, I got to see Paris, Africa, Australia, Spain…” She smiled, “it’s truly been an amazing experience.”

“I’m jealous,” Elena laughed.

“We’re going to start recruiting for the Salvatore school soon, we should go a girl's trip,” Caroline suggested excitingly.

“You guys are recruiting?” Bonnie asked.

“Yup, we’re doing some renovations to expand and adding some stuff to the property, and we really wanna give more children the opportunity to be apart of a place where they feel safe to truly be themselves.”

“You guys are doing amazing, Care, really… Stefan would love what you guys have accomplished in less than a year… Even Damon dotes on how amazing it is.” Elena told her, “and for the girl's trip, I would go.”

“What she said,” Bonnie laughed.

They sat and drank their wine, ate lunch, and caught up after months of being apart. Once they were finished, they paid their bill and headed back to the loft. When they arrived, they found Damon and Alaric drinking at the bar and laughing. 

For the rest of that evening, they’d all sat around and caught up. They’d cooked a big dinner and had few drinks. Around 11, they all decided to call it a night and Caroline insisted that Elena sleep with her and Bonnie, just like old times, so Damon being the gentleman he was, gave the girls his and Elena’s bed and slept in the spare bedroom. 

“Are you sure, because we can all sleep in the spare,” Caroline told him.

“Yeah, of course, I’m sure. This bed is bigger and you’ll be comfier,” Damon told her, “Just let me change, and brush my teeth and the room is yours.”

“Being a human made him… Nice.” Caroline laughed, watching him walk into the bathroom.

“Heard that,” Damon yelled back.

After Damon brushed his teeth, he changed into some comfy pants and a t-shirt. He kissed Elena on the forehead and told the girls goodnight before walking down the hall and into the bedroom. While Bonnie and Caroline were getting ready for bed, Elena slipped out and down the hall into the spare room. 

“Hey,” she smiled, watching as Damon pulled the bed down. 

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong,” she laughed, walking over and wrapping her arms around his waist, resting her head on his chest. “I just wanted to give you a proper goodnight kiss and tell you that I loved you… and thank you for being so cool with a girl's sleepover.”

He smiled and kissed her head, “I get to see you every single day, of course I’m okay with a sleepover.”

“Maybe you and Ric could share a bed, so you won’t be so lonely without me.”

Damon belly laughed, “I don’t think Ric would be okay with me slipping into his room late at night.”

“But he might…” Elena laughed back. 

Damon pulled her from his body and looked down at her for a moment, putting her hair behind her ear, before dipping his head down and kissing her. “I love you,” he whispered. 

“I love you,” she whispered back, before kissing him one last time and telling him goodnight.

When she arrived back to her bedroom, Caroline and Bonnie were sitting on the bed, “super hot make-out?” Caroline asked.

Elena laughed, “I’m gonna put my pjs on, you pick a movie.” 

Caroline laughed and grabbed the remote from Damon’s bedside table and turned on the TV. When Elena returned Bonnie and Caroline had picked the movie ‘Mean Girls’ because Caroline said it was a classic sleepover movie. 

Elena turned off the light and crawled into bed beside Bonnie, who was in the middle, and cuddled up to her best friends. They only made it about halfway through the movie before they all fell asleep. 

The next morning, aside from Damon, Bonnie was the first to wake up. She managed to free herself from Caroline and Elena’s grip and made her way down to the kitchen. She found Damon cooking his famous pancakes.

“BonBon, good morning. Making your favorite.” Damon smirked, knowing they ate these almost every day they were stuck in the prison world together. 

“They give me war flashbacks,” she joked, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge.

“Are Caroline and Lena up?” Damon asked, adding another circle to the griddle.

“No, sleeping like babies,” Bonnie replied.

While Damon finished the pancakes, Bonnie helped him by setting the table and cutting strawberries. When breakfast was almost done, a groggy Ric came walking down the stairs. 

“What I’m about to say is the most dad thing you’ll ever hear come out of my mouth, but it was so nice to sleep in,” he said, walking over to the counter Damon was standing behind. 

“It’s 10:30,” Bonnie laughed.

“Yeah, but when you have two six and half-year-olds waking you up at the crack of dawn fighting over a purple crayon you’ll understand.”

They both laughed, “that’s oddly specific,” Bonnie told him.

“Happened two days ago,” Ric replied. 

Once breakfast was finally finished, Damon decided to go wake up Elena and Caroline. He quietly slipped into the bedroom and made his way to the window, opening the curtains. 

“Damon,” Caroline growled, “It’s bright!”

“Wakey, wakey! It’s almost 11 ladies,” Damon smiled, plopping down on the end of the bed.

“I was sleeping so good too,” Elena pouted.

“Come on, I made pancakes,” Damon told them, pulling the comforter down.

When he finally got them out of bed, they all ate breakfast together. After everyone finished with breakfast, Elena cleaned up while Damon got ready for the day. Since the bar would be opening at 5PM, he’d asked Luke to get there around 2 to help set everything up and so Damon could make sure he was ready to go and prepared. While Damon, Luke and Alaric were downstairs, the girls got ready upstairs. 

Before 5PM there were people already crowding the door, and since Luke had been prepared, they decided to go ahead and open. It didn’t take long before the bar was pretty much packed and Damon and Luke were making tons of drinks. Lauren and Jules showed up too, finding Elena as soon as they came in. 

“This place is a hit,” Jules smiled, hugging Elena. 

“Yeah,” she smiled, “he looks so happy,” she said, looking at Damon working behind the bar. “Caroline, Bonnie, this is Lauren and Jules.”

“Nice to meet you, we’ve heard so much about you guys,” Lauren smiled.

“Same,” Caroline replied, “you girls want drinks? I can get them?”

“Sure, we’ll have the drink named after Elena,” Jules smiled. 

The drink named after Elena was made of pomegranate and lime juice, Chambord, vodka, and cardamom bitters. It was a deep red color and served over ice.

As the night went on, everyone continued to drink, play pool, and enjoy the atmosphere. Everyone in the bar was super friendly, and Damon and Elena had the chance to meet a lot of new people. As the night went on, the drunker everyone got, except for Damon and Luke. Once everything finally started to settle down, and the orders weren’t back to back, Damon found Elena. She was playing pool against Caroline while Bonnie, Jules, and Lauren were watching, hyping each of them up. 

“Mind if I steal my girl for a minute,” Damon smiled, taking Elena’s hand. 

“Wait, I’m about to win, just one last shot,” Elena giggled. The last balls on the table were Elena’s eight balls and three of Caroline’s striped balls. When Elena took her shot, she ended up missing it by a hair, giving Caroline the opportunity to catch up. 

“Eight ball, top right pocket,” Caroline smiled and made the shot. Bonnie and the girls cheered her on and Elena smiled. 

“Damnit, I blame it on the va-” she stopped herself so fast, and pretended to slur her words, “very good aim.”

Caroline smiled and challenged the next person, who happened to be Lauren. Damon grabbed Elena’s hands and led her over by the windows. 

“You look like you’re having a good time,” Damon smiled, wiping the hair from her eyes. “Here drink some cold water, it’ll help with what you’re gonna feel in the morning.”

Elena smiled and took a sip of the water he was holding. “I’m having the best time, this was a success, I’m so proud of you.”

“I’m glad you’re having fun, I am too,” he smiled, “I’m gonna get back to the bar, don’t let your friends leave until they’ve sobered up or called an Uber.” He told her, placing a soft kiss on her lips.

“I promise,” she smiled and walked back over to the pull table.

Damon did the last call at 1:00 AM and started helping people call Ubers and making sure the ones that were going to drive were actually okay to drive. Lauren ended up calling her brother to come and pick her and Jules up, and by 2:15 the bar was empty. After the last call, Damon and Luke had already cleaned up so the only thing left to do was clean the floors and lock up the money. 

While Damon and Luke closed up, Elena, Caroline, Bonnie, and a very tipsy Ric went upstairs. Ric was the first to head to bed and then Bonnie and Caroline followed shortly after since their flight was at 12 the next day. While waiting for Damon, Elena tidied up the loft and but some laundry in. Once Damon came up, they went upstairs and got ready for bed. 

With the exciting weekend they had, they hadn’t had much alone time, so they showered together. Slowly getting clean and enjoying the relaxing hot water. After their shower, they brushed their teeth and climbed into bed. She snuggled close to him, laying her head on his chest.

“I love you, and I’m so proud of what you’ve done here.”

He smiled, “I love you too, and I couldn’t have done it without your support.” It didn’t take long for them to fall asleep, they were both pretty exhausted. 

The next morning, they woke up around 8, along with everyone else. They had a quick breakfast together and said goodbye to their friends. They spent their Sunday together, mostly in the bedroom, and then went out to their favorite diner for dinner. The weekend was perfect, Damon couldn’t have wished for a better grand opening, and he couldn’t wait until Wednesday so he could do it all over again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed, new chapter tomorrow as well!! :)


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HI! I'm so sorry that it's taken months for me to get this chapter out. I started a business and myself ( a 22 year old) did not anticipate how much work that it would actually be lol. Now that everything is up and going I will be posting regularly again! Thank you so much to those of you who are still here and following along!! Your support is greatly appreciated! Please enjoy this chapter, I had a lot of fun writing it!

1 MONTH LATER:

It had been one month since The Salvatore Bar opened, and business was booming. In the last month, they’d brought in tons of new customers and had a few regulars that Damon was becoming friends with. Luke was doing wonderful too, enough to let Damon relax and not hover over him constantly like he did in the beginning. 

This year would be Damon and Elena’s first Valentine’s Day together as a human couple, and this would be the first time they could celebrate like a normal one, so Elena was determined to make it Damon’s most memorable one yet. She planned on making one of his favorite meals, which was pan-seared salmon, asparagus, and an avocado/lemon salad with fresh greens. Her cooking skills were getting better by the day and she was confident that she could do it without completely messing it up. After dinner, she would take him to bed, as any good partner would do, and give him the night of his life.

Valentine’s day of this year would, unfortunately, take place on a Wednesday, but she could work with that. As long as she made sure all of her assignments were caught up in advance, everything would work out perfectly. 

When she woke up that morning, she felt the empty spot where he was supposed to be and heard the shower running. She smiled to herself, this would be the perfect way to kick off the most romantic day of the year. She crawled out of bed and walked into the bathroom. Unfortunately, their shower was glass so he saw her walk in.

“Good morning,” he smiled, sudsing up his hair. 

“Good morning,” she smiled back, taking off her shirt, and then her shorts, “didn’t you hear? It’s better to shower with a buddy… good for the environment and stuff.” She told him, opening the door and stepping inside. 

The water was hot and gave a nice sensation to her skin, taking away all of her aches and sleepy stiffness, completely relaxing her. It was a magical way to wake up, in her opinion.

“You’re right, how inconsiderate of me,” he smiled, bending his head down to kiss her. “Happy Valentine’s Day.”

“Happy Valentine’s Day,” she whispered back, making a trail of kisses from his mouth to his jaw, loving the feel of his facial hair against her lips (because he’s slowly started to let it grow out) all the way down his neck before turning around, and facing her own shower head. 

He stepped closer behind her and whispered, “tease.”

She smiled and slightly leaned back, causing her ass to graze his cock. He was already hard in the mornings and didn’t take much to get a rise out of him. He wrapped his hands around her hips and stroked them up to her breasts, gently giving them both a squeeze before stepping back and rinsing the shampoo out of his hair.

She sighed, “now who’s being a tease.”

He laughed, and once he got the product out of his hair, he stepped back up behind her, “tell me what you want…” he whispered.

“Your hands, on me…” she whispered back, grinding her ass against him once again. 

He moaned, and she could feel how hard he was getting. He took his hands and placed them over her breasts again, gently pinching her nipples in between his fingers. She moaned and laid her head back against his shoulder as he slid his hands from her breasts, down her stomach, and between her thighs, stroking her clit before plunging a finger inside of her.

“Damon…” she moaned, and he smiled, placing a kiss on her neck. 

“Lean up and put your hands on the wall,” he whispered, and she did. He stroked himself in his hand a few times before slowly entering her. They both moaned as he filled her up, and slowly started to thrust. After moments of slow, torturous strokes he finally picked up the pace, snaking his hand to the front part of her body and finding her clit once again. It didn’t take her long before she was clenching around him, legs shaking, and crying out in pleasure. He continued to pump in and out of her until they were both finished riding out their orgasms and were in complete and utter bliss.

He placed a kiss in the center of her back, right above her freckle, and pulled out. She smiled and turned around, “I love you.”

“I love you,” he replied in awe. 

They both finished showering and got ready for their day. She had classes and he had some paperwork to do for the bar. He needed to make sure everything would be in order for Luke because Damon would be leaving him in charge for the night. Wednesday nights at the bar weren't slammed so they were both sure he could handle it, and if he couldn’t Damon would be upstairs. 

After both getting ready, they headed downstairs and she grabbed her bag. She gave him another quick kiss and said “remember, do not make any plans outside of this loft for today. I have a surprise.” 

“I promise, I’m all yours,” he smirked. 

—

After Elena left for classes he went down and did his paperwork. He also took inventory and ordered any more supplies they were eventually going to need. After that, he went out and got Elena something for Valentine’s day, paid some bills, and came back home to the loft. He got there around 1PM, and starting packaging her gift, while doing this he got a text,

‘Hey, need to go to the store so I’ll be home later. I love you :) ’ 

He smiled and texted back, ‘Be safe, love you more.’

She needed to get him a gift, so her first stop was the mall. Damon was a pretty easy person to shop for, he was grateful for anything you gave him, but finding the perfect gift was difficult. She went to a few different stores and got him a few things she thought he’d enjoy. After the mall she went to the grocery store, she needed to get all of the ingredients for their dinner, which only took about 45 minutes. 

She got back to the loft around 4PM, and while he was down in the bar, she carried all of the groceries and his gifts up to the loft. As she made her way over into the kitchen she found a beautiful heart-shaped box filled with roses, chocolate-covered strawberries, and a card. She smiled and sat the groceries down on the other counter and picked up the card. 

Elena, we don’t need a clichè holiday to express the love we have for one another, because we do that every day. We celebrate the bumpy road it took to get us here because it was so worth it. All of the pain, heartbreak, and waiting was worth it... I’ve loved you for almost as long as I’ve known you and I will love you until I take my very last breath, and I’ll take that last breath remembering all of the love and joy you brought to my life…All of the life you’ve given me. Here’s to one of many more valentine’s day’s we’ll have together. - Forever yours, Damon.

She smiled with tears in her eyes and turned around to find him standing a little distance behind her. She ran into his arms and hugged him tightly, “I love you so much, Damon.”

He squeezed her back, “I love you so much too, Lena.” He whispered, bending down to kiss her.

She walked over and smelled of the roses, “they’re gorgeous, in looks and smells,” she giggled. 

“I’m glad you like them," he told her, walking over to the counter beside her, "you want help putting away the groceries?”

“Actually no, I need you to make yourself busy so I can cook you dinner, and your gifts are in here,” she told him.

He narrowed his eyes and smiled, “okay fine, I guess I could go down to the bar and make us some drinks, check in on Luke.”

“Great, it shouldn’t take too long,” she replied, giving him a quick kiss. 

After he was gone she took his gifts and placed them in a little gift bag, wrote on his card, and placed it on the table. After getting his gift taken care of, she started dinner. She prepped the salmon by making sure all of the bones were out of it and rubbing it down with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Before placing them in the pan, she made the avocado/lemon salad, which was sliced avocado on a bed of greens with cucumber and lemon juice squeezed on top. It didn’t take long for the salmon or asparagus so she put them into different pans at the same time so they would both be ready together. After about 20 minutes she texted Damon and told him it was safe to come up, and then plated their meals.

She lit candles and put them on the table alongside their dinner, and two empty wine glasses. Sure enough, when he came back upstairs he was carrying a bottle of red wine. 

“Woah, smells good in here,” he told her, walking over to the dinner table, “Figured we’d go with red for the holiday,” he added, holding up the bottle. 

“Perfect, I’ll go great with the dinner I cooked,” she smiled proudly. 

He observed the plates that were on the table, they looked beautiful, he was proud of the cook she was becoming, “you made my favorite…It looks amazing.”

“Yes I did, and thank you. While I pour the wine, you can open your gift."

“Isn’t it me that supposed to be spoiling you?” He chuckled.

“That’s not very feminist of you,” she laughed, pouring the wine, “you’re my partner, my equal, I’m supposed to spoil you too.”

He smiled, and picked up the card, 

Damon, Happy Valentine’s Day. This year is yours, I can’t say I love you enough, or show you all of the gratitude I have for you…for never giving up on us or me, but I’ll spend the rest of our lives trying to. -Forever yours, Elena.

He looked over and smiled at her, “I’ll love you forever.” 

When he opened up the gift bag he found his favorite candies, and a package of upcycled granite whiskey stones, that were designed to be a replacement for ice. He walked over to her and places a chased kiss on her lips, “I love you, and thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” she whispered back.

They turned on some music and sat down for dinner. Elena had outdone herself, dinner was delicious, and they both really enjoyed the fresh salmon. After dinner, they both cleaned up the kitchen together and then decided to take a bubble bath and have the chocolate covered strawberries for dessert.

“I think this is my favorite Valentine’s Day,” Elena told him, taking a bite out of one of the strawberries. They were sitting at each end of the tub facing each other, her legs on his lap, and both covered in bubbles. 

“Me too,” he said smiling lazily, “I've never felt so spoiled.”

“That was the plan…” she smirked, “it was the least I could do for missing five of them.”

“Yeah, it was pretty lonely, being stood up on Valentine’s day.”

She laughed, and nudged him with her toe, “hey you’re the one that just had to get yourself sent off into a prison world with a literal psychopath that was smart enough to escape... twice.”

“Fair,” he laughed.

After their bath, they each got out and dried off, brushed their teeth, and headed out of the bathroom. Before Elena could get to her side of the bed, Damon came in from behind her and scooped her up, gently flinging her onto the mattress and crawling on top of her. He kissed every square inch of her body, ravishing her over and over again until they were both too physically exhausted to move. He pulled her close and up against his chest before they both drifted off to sleep. 

__

In the following month, Damon started planing what would be one of the biggest days in their relationship: the day he asked Elena Gilbert to marry him. He’d spent hours planning everything out, making sure every detail was perfect. He was going to propose on March 24th because that was on a Saturday and she didn’t have class. He was going to wake up and make her favorite breakfast, spoil her, and then pop the question after dinner. He wanted it to be intimate, but not do one of those attention-grabbing, public proposals, so he opted for decorating the loft.

He was only a little nervous, not because he was afraid of her saying no, but because he wanted everything to be perfect and special, and memorable. Elena was completely oblivious, he kept the ring in the safe, and told no one except for Luke and Little Gilbert, who were both going to help him execute his plan.

When he woke up that Friday, Elena was in the shower. He popped his head into the bathroom and told her good morning before making his way down to the kitchen to make them both a cup of tea. With the opening of the bar, and their busy schedules they had started meal planning. They made a few days worth of muffins for breakfast and she packed her lunch. 

Shortly after Damon made the tea, Elena made her way downstairs. She was dressed in a pair of light blue scrubs, because today was a lab day, and her hair was up thrown up in a hair tie. He smirked because she looked so hot in a pair of scrubs. 

“You know some people find staring impolite,” she giggled, walking over to where he was standing. 

“Some people have never seen you in a pair of scrubs.” He said, raising his eyebrows in response.

She giggled again, and kissed him softly on the lips, before trying to walk away but his arm snaked around her waist and he pulled her back to him. He made a path of kisses from her cheek to her collarbone, locking his arms around the front part of her waist. 

“Damon, you’re going to make me late…” she whispered, completely at his mercy.

“So be late,” he smiled against her, nibbling at her earlobe.

“If I’m late I won’t get to wear these scrubs for much longer,” she replied, this time laughing at him. 

“Fine, but after…” he whispered, “you’re all mine.”

After eating muffins and having their tea together, Elena headed to class and Damon headed back upstairs. He showered and got ready for the day, grabbed his journal, and headed to his sitting place at the top of the stairs. He wasn’t the very best at keeping up with a journal, not like Elena was, but he found that he’d liked it… Documenting all of his favorite things and moments from his new human life, he finally got why Stefan did it. So when he was in the mood to share, he would come to this spot overlooking the big window in the loft, and write. 

Hello Brother,

it’s been awhile… I haven’t written since we first opened the Salvatore bar. Business is booming, and we’re getting tons of new customers everyday. I think you’ve really enjoyed it, enjoying doing it with me. Elena is good too, she’s learning more and more at Med School and she really enjoys it. She’s going to make a wonderful doctor. She’s smart and she has so much compassion for people, more than you or I ever had. She’s actually the reason I’m writing to you… I’m proposing. I’m going to ask her to be my wife, I’m ready to start our family. I only wish you could be here with us.. I’m going to need a best man when she says yes, and it’s devastating that it can’t be you. At least I could attend your wedding. All of my jokes aside, I miss you brother. I hope that peace is treating you well and that you’re happy.... where ever you are.. Elena tells me to have hope that i'll see you again, so that's just what I'm trying to do.

-love, DAMON

After he finished with his journal entry, he put it away, and then made his way down to the bar. He did the usual: paperwork, inventory, stocked up some stuff, and then cleaned up. Before heading back up to the loft, he grabbed the engagement ring out of the safe and took it with him.   
That night, he and Elena both worked the bar with Luke. A whole new wave of customers came in and they were packed. Once the bar closed, Elena helped Damon and Luke clean up. After coming back up to the loft, they showered and then both fell into bed completely exhausted.

The next morning Damon’s alarm went off bright and early at 9AM, Elena groaned and buried her head deeper into the pillow. 

“Shh, go back to sleep. I’m sorry, I forgot to turn it off before bed,” he lied, placing a kiss on her cheek. 

He laid there for a few more minutes until he was sure she went back to sleep, before getting out of bed and sneaking out and down to the bar. 

“Thanks for coming,” Damon told Jeremy, letting him inside.

“No problem, today’s a special day,” he smiled, hugging Damon.

“Yes it is…” Damon smiled and hugged him back, it’d been a little awhile since he’d seen little Gilbert. To be honest he’d even missed him a little. 

“I’ve never actually been in this place before, it’s nice, nice.” Jeremy told him, looking around. 

“Thanks, little Gilbert, we worked hard on it.” Damon laughed, “and if you ever want a job…”

“Oh no, I’m good,” Jeremy smiled, “I like hunting just fine… But tonight is an exception.”

“Please don’t burn the place down… I’m just starting to like you,” Damon joked.

Jeremy laughed and took a seat at one of the booths, “If anyone is gonna burn the place down it’ll be my sister.”

Damon laughed and took a seat on the opposite side of him, “So you remember the plan… Roses everywhere leading to the bedroom, and around the couch, lots of candles.”

“Yes, I haven’t forgotten… The journal on the coffee table, bottle of wine, light the candles when you’re on your way home and bolt back down to the bar without telling a soul,” he laughed.

“Okay great, you haven’t forgotten… I want this to be perfect, so for the candles get either cashmere plum or anything that smells like vanilla or baked goods… and get as many red roses as it takes. I’ll give you my credit card.” Damon explained.

“Okay, got it,” he assured him, and then looked at him for a moment. “You know, I never thought I would be okay with her choosing you… But I’m glad she did, you’re really amazing to her."

Damon smiled, "I love her, Jer… and she changed my life in every single way possible.”

They sat in the bar for a few more minutes and caught up, Jeremy told Damon all about the work he was doing for the school as a hunter and how happy he was. 

“Are you sure you don’t wanna come up and say hi?” Damon asked him as they stood up from the booth. 

“No, I shouldn’t… It’ll make her suspicious… Give her my love afterwords though.” Jeremy told him. “I’ll be leaving tonight after closing time, I’ve actually gotta be somewhere tomorrow… I’m tracking down a student's biological family in Wyoming.”

“Be safe,” Damon told him, walking him over to the door.

“I will!” 

They said their final goodbyes and Damon locked back up. He made his way back up to the loft and then back into their bedroom. When he walked in, Elena lifted her arm from her face and smiled, “Where’d you go?” 

“I woke up really, really thirsty and went and chugged a ton of water,” he laughed, climbing back into bed, “I thought you were asleep.”

“I was until I went to snuggle up to you and you weren’t there,” she told him, laying her head on his chest and entangling their legs together.

“Sorry,” he chuckled.

They lost track of the time they spent laying like this, Damon gently stroking her hair and placing soft kisses on her forehead while Elena played with his free hand, intertwining their fingers and rubbing her thumb across his knuckles. These moments were their favorite, the world was nonexistent to them, and they were in their own little intimate bubble. 

“Let’s have an us day…” Damon whispered against the top of her head. “A day where we just spend all day in bed and then go out on a date to dinner.” 

“Sounds perfect,” she smiled, kissing the inside of his hand, and then it dawned on her, “wait, but the bar is open tonight.”

“It’s okay, Luke has it covered, I already asked.”

“But what if he gets a huge wave of customers,” Elena asked.

“It’s okay,” he replied, kissing the top of her head again, “if it gets too busy he’ll call… I actually trust that he can manage though.. and what’s the point of being the owner if I can’t play hooky every now and again,” he smirked cockily. 

She playfully rolled her eyes, “Fine, you’re right… You are the boss.”

He laughed and kissed her passionately. After spending half of the morning in bed, they left it long enough for Damon to go down and make her favorite breakfast for them, and to eat. After, they made their way back upstairs. They spent the rest of the day relaxing; they cuddled, Damon gave Elena foot massages, they ate their favorite snacks, alls while watching a show called Stranger Things. They had previously started it a few weeks ago and finished the first of the 2 seasons before finally getting up and getting ready for date night. While Elena was in the shower, he called and made reservations at ‘A Cena Ristorante,’ a romantic Italian restaurant they’d both come to love. It was a place that reminded them of their first date, and the food was delicious. 

After her shower, she came out of the bathroom wrapped in a robe, Damon smiled, checking her out, “Wear something nice, were going to A Cena Ristorante.”

“Favorite breakfast, dinner at our favorite restaurant, foot massages … What are you up to, Damon Salvatore?” She asked, raising her brow at him. 

“Who me,” he pretended to be shocked, “I’m just trying to treat my girl,” he smirked. 

She narrowed her eyes and smiled, “I’ll wear something nice.”

“I’m showering.”

Elena decided to go with a beautiful black, long-sleeve smock dress that stopped just above her knee, with a pair of black sheer tights. She wore her hair curly and put natural makeup on. Damon went with black Levis and a black sweater. They both wore their ‘this is forever’ cuffed bracelets and by 7PM they were out the door. 

They took his car and arrived at the restaurant around 7:20. When they went inside they were seated immediately at a little, dimly lit booth in the back of the restaurant.

“Can I get you started with drinks?” the server asked. He was a very tall, slender man, probably in his 30, with dark hair and dark eyes. 

“Yes, I’ll have water please,” Elena told him with a smile.

“I’ll have the same, and then can we get a bottle of the 09’ Château Latour.” 

“Right away,” he replied and then walked away. 

Elena smiled, “a bottle of wine from the year we met.”

“The best bottle of wine from the year we met,” he replied. 

“You’re seriously being extra romantic tonight… You’re up to something.” 

“No…” He chuckled, opening up the menu.

Elena had her suspicions, she’d been waiting for him to pop the question for a while now. They both knew they wanted to get married and have a family, but they never actually talked timelines. She thought he would do it on Christmas, but instead, he gave her a gorgeous promise ring that never left her finger, and she thought maybe on Valentine’s Day but that was too cliche for Damon Salvatore… He was such a romantic anyway that she could never read him, all of this was normal for him to do, so she wasn’t getting her hopes up… But she did hope it would happen soon. 

When the waiter came back, he opened the bottle of wine and poured them each a glass. He asked if they were ready and they both said yes. They both ordered the eggplant parmesan because well, that was her favorite and that’s also what they both had on their first date. They also ordered a side of pancetta-wrapped Brussel sprouts.

While they waited for their dinner to come, they sat and talked, because for them there was always something to talk about, they never got bored of each other. They talked about going home and spending the summer in Mystic Falls since Elena got from late May to early August off from school. How it would be fun to stay at the lakehouse and spend time with their friends, and have a fun normal summer. 

“Of course, I’d have to hire someone else at the bar. But if I come home once a month to check in on things I think it could be fun.” Damon told her, sipping on his wine. “Luke cares a lot about the bar, and I really do trust him.”

“I think that Luke is very trustworthy, and I guess I could spare you for a week out of the month,” Elena giggled.

Damon smiled and just as he was about to reply their food came, the waiter sat their plates down in front of them and asked if they were all set, they were. 

“The best!” Elena told him, taking the first bite of her eggplant. “I think this better than the one from Mystic Falls.”

“I think you could be right, might even be better than eating people,” he told her with a smile.

“Must be delicious then for Damon Salvatore to say that.”

They finished their meals in about 30 minutes and decided to have a desert. They ordered a vanilla bean gelato, which came about 5 minutes after their dinner. Damon scooped up a spoon full and fed her, and then she fed him, purposely getting some on the edge of his mouth so that she could seductively swipe her finger across his bottom lip and lick it off in front of him.

He smiled at her, staring as she bit her lip, watching his reaction. Their moment was interrupted by the waiter, he asked if they were ready for the check, and Damon said yes. He looked at the bill and got his card out from his wallet and handed it to the man. Shortly after he brought two receipts back, one for him to keep and one for him to sign. The waiter told them to have a wonderful night, and they replied the same. 

When they walked out of the restaurant it was closer to 9PM and the temperature had dropped, Elena wrapped her arm around Damon’s and walked closer to him for warmth. 

“I have a jacket in the trunk, let me get it for you.” He told her, after opening the car door and putting her safely inside. 

Unfortunately, he needed the keys to get into the trunk, so she couldn’t start the car. He quickly walked to the back of the car and popped the trunk, making sure she couldn’t see him, he grabbed his phone out of his back pocket and texted Jeremy. In the pocket of his leather jacket was a little red box with the ring inside of it. He quickly put it in the pocket of his jeans and closed the trunk. 

“Here you go,” he said, laying the jacket over her lap. 

“Thank you,” she smiled and leaned over to kiss him. 

He quickly started up his Camaro, turned on the heat, and started the short drive back to the loft. By this time, there was hardly any traffic, so they made it back in about 15 minutes. The closer they got, the more nervous he got, but a good nervous, an excited one.. Kind of like waiting in line to ride your first rollercoaster. 

He pulled in beside her car and shut off the engine, by this time the car was warm and Elena’s hand had been on his thigh for the last five minutes of the drive, slowly creeping higher and higher each time. 

“Thank you for dinner,” she smiled, leaning over to press a lingering kiss on his lips. 

“You’re welcome,” he whispered back. Their faces were inches apart and she was waiting for him to take control of the situation and pull her over onto his lap, but instead, “let’s go inside,” he said with a smile. 

She sighed and laughed at him, “here I am, offering you hot car sex and you’re not taking it.”

He smirked that signature smirk and said, “I think you’ll like inside better.”

“Fine, but it better be epic,” she told him.

He smiled at her and opened his car door. They walked inside hand in hand and the bar was booming. There were tons of people inside, old and new faces. Luke gave them a wave and continued to make drinks. 

“Damon there is no way he’s handling this… We need to help him.”

“Lena, I promise, he’s got it covered.” He told her, grabbing her hand and leading her towards the loft. 

“But-” she went to say, but he cut her off with a kiss. 

“I promise.”

“Okay…” she smiled and gave him another kiss on the lips.

He let her walk inside first, and when they opened the door it smelled like her favorite candles. The lights were off and you could see the glow of candles against the walls, and soft music playing in the background. Elena turned around and looked at him confusingly. 

“What’s going on?” 

Damon smiled, “go up to the living room and find out…It’s date night, remember? Anything is possible.”

She bit her lip and smiled, took in a deep breath and walked up the first staircase leading into the lofts living room. When she arrived at the last step she saw a huge heart made out of roses on the floor and candles surrounding it. Aside from the heart, there were red rose petals placed expertly around the whole room and over to the second staircase. She took a few steps forward and seen that the rose petals lead up all the way up the stairs.

“Damon… What are you up to, when did you even have time-” She asked, turning around to find Damon down on one knee, holding a little red box with a diamond ring inside. 

She felt both perplexed and euphoric all at the same time and her breath was taken away. She didn’t even understand how he pulled this off. 

“Here we go,” Damon smiled, taking in a deep breath, “Elena Gilbert, when I first met you all those years ago, I had no idea how much you would come to mean to me. I was there chasing after a girl who had never loved me the way I loved her, and alls while on that search for her, you snuck up on me. You snatched up my heart so quickly I didn’t even know it happened, all I knew was that I didn’t deserve you, and hell, I still don’t deserve you. I’ve given you a million reasons to leave me, but for some reason you never did… You never gave up on me… Even in all of the crazy ass things we went through.. the originals, evil doppelgängers, sleep comas, humanity… the universe…” he laughed, “you always chose me. I can’t tell you where life will take us next, but I do know that I would love to have you by my side through it all .. my partner, my wife. I meant every word I said about us having an amazing life together, a family, and I don’t wanna waste anymore time. I don’t want to go another second without calling you my wife…So Elena Gilbert will you marry me?”

Tears were streaming down her face, and she was smiling from ear to ear. Before she could even answer him she leaped into his arms and hugged him tightly, nearly sending them both onto the floor. “Yes, I will marry you,” she replied, kissing him passionately, “I love you, forever. I will choose you, without a doubt, in a heartbeat, will always choose you until I take my last and final breath.”

He looked at her adoringly and kissed her again, this time much more passionately, before bringing both of them to their feet. He took the ring from the little box and slid it onto her left ring finger. It fit perfectly. It was a beautifully shaped diamond ring that exceeded her wildest dreams.

“It’s beautiful,” she told him, looking down at her finger.

“I’m so glad you think so,” he told her, placing another soft kiss on her lips. “I have something else for you too,” he told her, walking her over to sit down on the couch. “I’ve been planning this for awhile now, so I wanted to make you something special, and intimate, instead of having a cliche proposal,” he told her, grabbing a journal off of the coffee table.

“You did a journal,” she asked as he handed it to her. It was a light brown leather journal with the letters e&d and “our story” pressed into it. When she opened it the pages were filled with Damon’s handwriting, and photos, and little things they’d collected over the years. 

“I got this journal a little while after we’d moved here, and I started writing down every memory, and moment we had since I’d met you… all of the ones that I could remember, the ups and the downs and everything I felt for you... my pov of falling in love with you. And then towards the end are our pictures, and memories of exactly what was happening when the photo was taken… One big long love letter of everything I remember since the moment you walked into my life.”

Her eyes swelled with tears as she flipped through the pages, “this is the most thoughtful gift I’ve ever been given.”

“I know you like journals, and I thought this would be epic… and you’re only gonna have this one proposal in your life so I had to make it extra special,” he said cockily. 

She smiled and hugged him, “this better than I ever expected it to be.”

They hugged for what seemed like a lifetime, both completely content just holding each other. They were getting married, something that he never thought would happen just a few short years ago, but here they were and he couldn’t be happier. 

“Wait, how did you do all of this? I would’ve noticed all of this when we were leaving,” she giggled.

“I had some help from another special Gilbert,” he smirked.

“Jer came here and did all of this,” she asked, “how did I not know he was here?”

“Basically I lied, I wasn’t thirsty this morning, I was actually down there planning all of this out with him… he said he didn’t wanna see you because he didn’t wanna give it away… But he sends his love.” 

She smiled, looking around the beautifully decorated, delicious smelling room, “I love the both of you so much… and I guess that why Luke’s doing so good in the bar?”

“Guilty,” he smirked again, “he insisted.”

“Well, as beautiful as all of this is down here… I’m really interested in taking my soon to be husband to bed,” she winked, interlacing their fingers together as she pulled him up from the couch. 

His heart nearly stopped when she said husband, and he couldn’t help but smile the goofiest smile she’d ever seen.

“But bring the journal too, I wanna get started on reading that,” she told him, freeing one of her hands to grab it from the table. 

Hand in hand they followed the rose petals up the stairs and into their bedroom where they were greeted by another big heart shape on their bed.

“You really did go all out,” she giggled, sitting the journal down and wrapping her arms around his neck. 

He smiled and kissed her, slowly letting their mouths melt together. Her hands snaked up and under his sweater, pulling it overtop his head and down onto the floor. She made a path of kisses from his lips, and down his neck. They broke away from each other only for a moment, long enough for them to both kick their shoes off, and for Elena to slide off her tights. 

Damon placed his hands on her hips and slowly walked them back until they reached the bed. He bent down and lifted her dress up and over her head, leaving her in a matching set of black underwear. Once the dress was discarded, he motioned her onto the bed. She was completely at his mercy and looked at him with nothing but lust filled eyes. He smiled and made a path of kisses from her belly down to the insides of her thighs, leaving little red love marks on her skin. 

“Damon, please…” she moaned, bucking her hips towards him. He was kissing every single inch of her skin except the part where she wanted him at the most, and he smiled, knowing exactly what he was doing to her.

He finally pulled the cheeky, black fabric down her legs, leaving her completely exposed and they both moaned. Damon smirked, seeing how wet she already was for him and bent down. He placed a gentle kiss on her clit and she bucked her hips harder, squirming beneath him. He propped her leg up on his shoulder and swiped his tongue against her. 

Damon knew her body so well, knew exactly where to kiss, lick, and suck to make her lose all control. While his tongue was making little circles against her, his facial hair was adding even more of a sensation, pushing her closer and closer to the edge. Just as she was about to come, he stopped and stood up.

“Damon…” she whined.

He smirked and slowly undid his belt buckle, teasing her. Just as he removed the belt and went for the button on his jeans, he saw as she moved her hand down and in between her legs, making slow circles on herself. He could’ve came right then and there.

He swallowed hard and finally undid the button of his jeans and pushed them down his legs along with his boxers. 

“Your turn,” she smiled, and pulled him down on top of her again, quickly rolling them over so that she was on top. He was so hard beneath her that she couldn't help but moan and try to keep herself composed. She unclasped her bra and threw it with the pile on the floor. He smiled up at her and ran his hands down her arms and rested them on her hips. 

“You’re beautiful,” he told her.

“So are you,” she smiled back, leaning down and placing a kiss on his chest. She made a slow path of wet kisses all the way down until she reached his raging hard on. She gave him one last grin before dipping her head and taking him into her mouth, never losing eye contact with him. 

He sighed and threw his head back, Elena Gilbert knew how to give head, in fact, she was so good at it that when she did go down on him, he could hardly last. She wrapped her tongue around the head of his cock and softly sucked. She bobbed her head up and all the way back down to the base of his cock, holding her head there for a moment, and moaned. The vibrations from the moans added a whole new layer of pleasure for him and he couldn’t help but to cry out in complete ecstasy. She looked up at him, enjoying the sight of him completely falling apart in her hand as she stroked him slowly. 

“Lena, please… I’m not going to last much longer,” he breathed out.

She smiled and placed one last soft kiss on him before crawling back up and slowly sinking down onto him. They moaned together in perfect harmony, interlacing their fingers together as she slowly rode him. They never broke eye contact as they moved together, meeting the other’s thrust and sending them deeper and deeper into each other. 

As they got closer and closer to the edge, Damon rolled her back over so that now he was on top. He peppered kisses all across her breasts and chest, and she threw her head back in complete pleasure. His thrusts became faster and faster, and she couldn’t get enough, she pulled him closer to her, as close as he could be. Her fingernails left red scratches down his back, but at the time he didn’t feel pain, he couldn’t feel anything but the pleasure he was receiving from her. He lifted himself up and looked down at her, making eye contact yet again, as they both came, bodies convulsing, and both crying out in complete and utter bliss. 

When they both finished coming down from their highs, he kissed her one last time, and rolled off of her, pulling her close. Her head resting right where his heart was, and her left hand, the one wearing that pretty engagement ring, rested just over his chest. 

“It never gets old,” he laughed, “it’s always so good.”

“Best night of my whole life,” she replied.

He bent his head down and kissed her forehead, “mine too, baby.”

They laid like this for a little while, neither of them wanting to move a muscle.

“I think I have rose petals stuck to my ass,” Damon finally said, causing Elena to belly laugh. 

Neither one of them had thought to take the time to clear off the bed before they fell into it until now. 

“I totally forgot about the billion candles downstairs the speaker playing love songs,” she giggled, sitting up and climbing off of the bed. 

“I’m not the only with a rose petal stuck to my ass,” he laughed at her, “looking for these,” he asked, holding up a little pair of black panties.

She laughed and grabbed the petal from her skin and threw it at him. She reached for the underwear he was holding, but in Damon fashion he teased her and wouldn’t let her have them.

“Damon…” she playfully groaned, trying her best to grab them, but not succeeding, “fine, I’ll go downstairs without them.” 

“No, no,” he said, pulling her back into bed. “I’ll go!”

“I can go, haven’t you done enough for the night?” She smiled, running her hand down his jaw.

“Yes, but don’t you see, I love to do things for you.” He told her, standing up from the bed and sliding on his boxers. He kissed her passionately a few times and headed out of the bedroom. 

She rolled her eyes and knew there was no point in arguing with him about who got to blow out the proposal candles, so instead, she slid on her underwear and Damon’s sweater and grabbed the journal he’d given her. She cleared the rose petals off the comforter and turned down the bed before climbing in. 

The journal was beautiful and minimalistic, and every single page was filled front to back with his beautiful 1800s style handwriting. The first page read, 

Elena,   
from our first encounter on that road, so many moons ago, to the part where I’d received the cure, I’d never been great at telling you how I felt, especially when you were dating my brother... you were off limits, and I was flighting all of my warm and fuzzy humanity feelings. I hope this journal can give you a glimpse into my point of view of our love story. I wrote down everything, every detail, from the moment I knew you were special, to the moment I fell in love with you, and from the moment you told me you loved me, I wrote down every feeling I had. It’s all from memory, but trust me, when you fall in love with someone as consuming as Elena Gilbert you don’t forget a detail. 

This is for you, my love, enjoy.   
-D

She smiled as she read his words.. it truly was one of the most thoughtful gifts she’d ever received. She flipped through the pages and looked through all of their pictures, he’d probably added every photo they’d ever taken together, even the bad ones. 

She stopped at the page titled “The Photo Booth” and looked at the string of their photos and smiled. She remembered this night so well.

*Flashback*

“Hurry!! Get inside!” Elena giggled, keeping the curtain of the Photo Booth open long enough for Damon to get inside beside her. 

The timer starting counting down from 10 and Elena adjusted her hair, “okay, nice and normal,” she told him, and they both smiled as the first photo was taken. 

“Silly face!!” Damon told her, sticking his tongue out to the side… She did the same.

“A kiss for my girl,” he whispered as he places his soft lips against her cheek, causing her to smile. 

“Now I eat my girl,” Damon growled, practically taking her whole cheek into his mouth, she started giggling as the camera flashed, like it was the most normal thing in the world for her boyfriend to inhale her face.

“I can’t wait to see how these turned out,” she giggled, following him out of the Photo Booth and grabbing the photo strips from the basket. 

They both laughed at how perfect they were… silly and sweet, which described their relationship perfectly… At least since the whole cure search, sire bond thing was over. This was the third official date they’d went on together since the summer started. Damon suggested they went to the theater to see a French film, but not to watch the movie, to sit in the back and throw popcorn at hipsters and makeout.

*end of flashback*

The entry wrote, 

This is one of my favorite memories from our perfect summer. I had never been so happy in all of my life. I finally knew that you were truly in love with me, and we were together. We sat in the very back corner of that theater and fed each other popcorn and then threw random pieces at the other people who were in front of us. I know they knew it was us, but they never said a word… probably a good thing because I would’ve probably eaten them. Seriously though, I’d never felt more human than I did that summer… Like vampirism didn’t exist and we were just two ove sick puppies in the back of a theater being obnoxious… You’re the first girl I ever made out in the back of a movie theater with… I know shocking… but it was also my first time in a Photo Booth. Thank you for such an amazing third date, my love… here’s to a thousand more. 

-All my love   
-D

Elena found herself giggling at the journal entry when he walked back inside of their bedroom. 

“Enjoying the journal I see,” he smiled, climbing into the bed beside her.

“It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever had…” she replied, kissing him on the cheek. “I’m serious, Damon, thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

She laid the journal on her nightstand and turned off the lamp. “Someday, when we have kids, I can pass that journal along to her, or him, and they can see the good parts of how we fell in love.”

“Kids… woo, are they in for a story,” Damon laughed, turning his bedside lamp off. 

They both pulled the covers up over them and laid facing each other. 

“I can’t believe we’re going to get married,” she smiled, her eyes adjusted enough to the darkness that she could look down at her ring and stare in awe.

“Elena Salvatore,” he grinned, saying it out loud for the first time. 

“Has a beautiful ring to it, huh.” She replied, scooting closer to him. “I wanna wait to tell people… I just want this to be ours for a while.”

“Me too, the only people who know are Alaric and Jer… I didn’t trust anyone else, especially Caroline.”

Elena smiled, “she would have told it or died..but she’s going to make a wonderful wedding planner… I think she’s been planning my wedding since we were 7.”

“Oh yeah? What did 7 year old Elena Gilbert want for a wedding,” he asked.

“She wanted a prince charming, lots of flowers, and her mom's wedding dress,” Elena told him. That was the first time she’d thought about not having her mom or her mom’s dress. “But things change, and humanity-less Elena burns her house down with her mom’s wedding dress inside.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t even think about that…” he whispered back, not sure what to say.

“Neither did I… I always thought my dad would walk me down the aisle, my mom would be there to help out, aunt Jenna would be my bridesmaid.” She told him, shifting to her back. “I wanna get married as soon as possible. Like this summer… I wanna plan a beautiful, small wedding with our closest friends… because life is too short and I don’t want to wait another moment to be your wife.”

“I would love nothing more than that… We could get married at the end of summer… Maybe have the ceremony at the lake or the little piece of land where we kissed in the rain… I’m all in,” he told her. 

She smiled and kissed him, “it’s settled, we’re getting married.”

His heart swelled with happiness, and he could hardly wait. He’d been dreaming of the moment they’d become husband and wife for as long as he could remember.

It didn’t take long for either one of them to fall asleep… they were both tired from waking up so early after a night of no sleep. Come Sunday they slept until noon and when Elena woke up she was sure it was all a dream until she looked down at the beautiful ring sitting on her finger. They spent the day playing board games, looking at wedding stuff on Pinterest, and ordering in their favorite spring rolls because it was a rainy day in Portland, and they wanted a casual, cozy Sunday. They even called and thanked Jeremy for all that he did. 

Their summer would start in a little over two months and they could hardly wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that you enjoyed this chapter and please feel free to leave a comment!! :)
> 
> Also hope I did Delena justice with that proposal, I fought with myself back and forth on how I wanted to do it, lmao.


	12. Update!

Hi guys, I know that I haven't uploaded a new chapter since Thanksgiving, but I'm working on it!! I'm writing a very lengthy and important chapter and I want it to be perfect before I post it! It should be up by Wednesday of this coming week!! Have a happy Sunday! :)


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